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1506626

	registered interest
	date	20/09/2022
	answering body	Cabinet Office
	answering dept id	53
	answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
	answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
	hansard heading	Cabinet Office: Corporate Travel Management
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of journeys by air were under 300 miles in each year of his Department’s contract with Corporate Travel Management (North) Ltd., reference CCTM19A03.
	tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
	tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
	uin	51502
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>16% - 3 out of the 19 charter flights since the start of the contract were under 300 miles.</p><p>This enabling agreement is the framework document for the call off contract to provide Ministerial Air Charter Transport. The contracting authority for the call off contract is the Cabinet Office on behalf of His Majesty’s Government. The Framework Agreement (RM6016) is held by Crown Commercial Service on behalf of His Majesty’s Government.</p><p>All responses under the contract reference CCTM19A03 refer to Air Charter Travel only.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 28/09/2022 16:04:26 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1684083

	registered interest
	date	22/01/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Probation: Staff
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the number of vacancies per region in the probation service at the end of 2023.
	tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
	tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
	uin	10822
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2024 answer text <p><strong>Table One: Vacancies across Probation Service Regions, September 2023, all Probation Service grades</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Probation Service Region</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Vacancies (FTE)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS East Midlands</p></td><td><p>28</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS East of England</p></td><td><p>274</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Greater Manchester</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Kent, Surrey &amp; Sussex</p></td><td><p>77</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS London</p></td><td><p>457</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS North East</p></td><td><p>32</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS North West</p></td><td><p>77</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS South Central</p></td><td><p>176</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS South West</p></td><td><p>74</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Wales</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS West Midlands</p></td><td><p>32</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Yorkshire &amp; the Humber</p></td><td><p>59</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Approved Premises</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Data shows average resource across the month, adjusted for joiners and leavers within the month. Data shown as of September 2023, aligning with the most recent HMPPS Workforce Quarterly publication. More recent data cannot be provided due to potentially pre-empting future statistical publications.</p><p>Recruitment and retention remain a priority across the Probation Service. We have injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, recruit thousands more staff and reduce caseloads to keep the public safer.</p><p>We continue to focus efforts on enhanced, centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions alongside regional recruitment to help bolster the number of applications and improve time to hire for key operational roles. We have also accelerated recruitment of trainee Probation Officers (PQiPs) to increase staffing levels, particularly in Probation Delivery Units with the most significant staffing challenges. As a result, over 4,000 PQiPs joined the service between 2020/21 and 2022/23 which will increase Probation Officer staffing numbers.</p><p>The Probation Service is in its second year of a multi-year pay deal for staff. Salary values of all pay bands will increase each year, targeted at key operational grades to improve a challenging recruitment and retention position. The Probation Service has also introduced a Prioritisation Framework to provide clarity on prioritisation of tasks and what can be reduced/paused when capacity issues begin to impact on operational delivery.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Notes</em></strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ol><li>Vacancies have been calculated as Required Staffing (Full Time Equivalent - FTE) minus Staff in Post (FTE).</li><li>Where the number of Staff in Post (FTE) in a region exceeds Required Staffing (FTE), the number of vacancies has been shown as 0 FTE. Summing the figures in the table will not give the overall number of vacancies across the Probation Service due the surpluses in some regions that haven’t been shown in the table.</li><li>Vacancies have been netted off between grades and business units. As a result, the overall vacancy figures presented mask the presence of vacancies at both grade and business unit level.</li><li>Data have been taken from the Workforce Planning Tool and are subject to inaccuracy as a result of the manual nature with which returns are completed. This approach differs from the published statistics, which uses data from the Single Operating Platform (our departmental HR system).</li><li>Staff in Post (FTE) has not been adjusted for long-term absences (e.g. Trainee Probation Officer training time). In addition, we have not factored in loans / temporary cover / agency and sessional.The actual resourced position will therefore differ as a result of these.</li><li>Trainee Probation Officers are included in the data. Trainees spend a proportion of their time training and the remainder of their time carrying out work at a Band 3 PSO level. Both training time and time spent delivering caseload are included in the Staff in Post (FTE) calculations, which means that number of vacancies is lower than the actual gap between Required Staffing and frontline delivery.</li></ol></p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 25/01/2024 16:07:43 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1668637

	registered interest
	date	08/11/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prison Officers: Vacancies
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officer positions were vacant in (a) June, (b) July, (c) August, (d) September and (e) October 2023.
	tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
	tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
	uin	826
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/11/2023 answer text <p><strong>Total Band 3-5 Prison Officer indicative vacancies (FTE) across Public Sector Prison Establishments in England &amp; Wales, June 2023</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Month</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Indicative vacancies (FTE)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jun-23</p></td><td><p>879</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>We have only provided data for June 2023, aligning with the most recent data published in the HMPPS Workforce Quarterly Statistics (scheduled for 16 November 2023). This is because vacancy figures, whilst not published are linked to information that will be released shortly and could therefore prejudice the proper release of that data. Therefore we are only able to provide a limited response.</p><p>We are doing more than ever to attract and retain the best staff, including boosting salaries and launching our first-ever nationwide advertising campaign.</p><p>These efforts are working - we have hired over 4,000 additional officers since March 2017 and retention rates for prison staff are improving.</p><ul><li>All data is taken from Workforce Planning Tools and shows the average position across the month, adjusted for joiners and leavers in the month.</li><li>Data only covers prison establishments and will not reflect any Band 3 – 5 Prison Officers who are working in headquarters establishments.</li><li>Workforce Planning Tool returns are manually completed by staff in prisons each month and, as with any manual returns, are subject to human error.</li><li>Indicative vacancies are the difference between Target Staffing and Staff in Post across the entire England &amp; Wales prison estate.</li><li>Target Staffing is the number of staff required to run an optimal regime in each prison. This level is greater than the minimum number of staff required for a prison to operate safely, and includes allowances for staff taking leave, being off sick or being on training.</li><li>The Target Staffing Figures are set on a site-specific basis and vary in size.</li><li>Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (including specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.</li><li>Target Staffing levels are established based on a 39-hour working week. Staff in Post (FTE) is set at 1.0 FTE for those on a 39-hour contract / 1.05 FTE for those on a 41-hour contract and 0.95 FTE for those on a 37-hour contract.</li><li>Staff in Post data used to calculate an indicative number of vacancies does not take into account those on long-term absences (e.g. career breaks) / loans / secondments / agency staff or other forms of overtime.</li><li>Where prisons are not at their Target Staffing level, these are routinely supplemented (e.g., by using Payment Plus, a form of overtime) which is not accounted for in the indicative vacancy data provided. Use of detached duty, a long-standing mechanism to deploy staff from one prison or region to support another, is also not reflected in the data.</li><li>The above figure is a combination of indicative vacancies at prisons with Staff in Post below their Target Staffing level and the indicative number of surplus staff at other prisons where Staff in Post is above their Target Staffing level. In reality, prisons with surplus staff are likely to be sending those staff to work on Detached Duty at prisons with vacancies, and therefore netting vacancies against surpluses is a fair reflection of the overall national position.</li></ul> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 17/11/2023 11:51:42 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1544216

	registered interest
	date	21/11/2022
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Domestic Abuse
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Defamation Act 2013 on victims of domestic abuse and coercive control.
	tabling member constituency	Poplar and Limehouse
	tabling member printed	Apsana Begum
	uin	92371
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/11/2022 answer text <p>A Post-Legislative Memorandum reviewing the impact of the Defamation Act 2013 was published in October 2019. The broad conclusion is that the Act ensures the right balance in law is achieved; that free speech is not unjustifiably impeded by actual or threatened libel proceedings, while ensuring that people who have been libelled are able to protect their reputation.</p><p>The fear of being threatened with libel should never stop anyone from reporting abuse.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 25/11/2022 14:24:37 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4790 label Biography information for Apsana Begum

1695701

	registered interest
	date	13/03/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisons: Civil Disorder
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many barricade or prevention of access incidents took place in prisons in England and Wales in each year since 2018.
	tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
	tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
	uin	18471
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/03/2024 answer text <p>A barricade or prevention of access is an incident where one or more prisoners deny access to all or part of a prison, by use of any physical barrier, to those lawfully empowered to have such access.</p><p>An incident at height is any incident that takes place above or below ground level where a person could be injured if they fell from that place. Incidents at height come in many forms, ranging from internal incidents (prisoners on the fall arrest netting or climbing over bars) to an external incident (prisoners on the roof).</p><p>The information requested can be found in the HMPPS Annual Digest - Protesting Behaviour data tool: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c1438a90b545000d3e83c4/7.__Protesting_behaviour_data_tool.xlsx" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c1438a90b545000d3e83c4/7.__Protesting_behaviour_data_tool.xlsx</a>.</p><p>These figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing returns but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level.</p><p>The national staffing position in prisons is improving, with a substantial increase of over 1,634 Full-Time Equivalent Band 3-5 prison officers in the 12 months ending 31 December 2023.</p><p>We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and providing prison officers with the right support, training and tools to empower them to do their jobs. We are providing targeted support to prisons to operate the Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan (CSIP) which provides a framework for managing violence that is centred around the individual needs of prisoners, helping them to move away from violent behaviours.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar grouped question UIN 18472 question first answered 20/03/2024 15:17:17 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1695703

	registered interest
	date	13/03/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisons: Civil Disorder
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents at height occurred in a prison in England and Wales in each year since 2018.
	tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
	tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
	uin	18472
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/03/2024 answer text <p>A barricade or prevention of access is an incident where one or more prisoners deny access to all or part of a prison, by use of any physical barrier, to those lawfully empowered to have such access.</p><p>An incident at height is any incident that takes place above or below ground level where a person could be injured if they fell from that place. Incidents at height come in many forms, ranging from internal incidents (prisoners on the fall arrest netting or climbing over bars) to an external incident (prisoners on the roof).</p><p>The information requested can be found in the HMPPS Annual Digest - Protesting Behaviour data tool: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c1438a90b545000d3e83c4/7.__Protesting_behaviour_data_tool.xlsx" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c1438a90b545000d3e83c4/7.__Protesting_behaviour_data_tool.xlsx</a>.</p><p>These figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing returns but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level.</p><p>The national staffing position in prisons is improving, with a substantial increase of over 1,634 Full-Time Equivalent Band 3-5 prison officers in the 12 months ending 31 December 2023.</p><p>We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and providing prison officers with the right support, training and tools to empower them to do their jobs. We are providing targeted support to prisons to operate the Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan (CSIP) which provides a framework for managing violence that is centred around the individual needs of prisoners, helping them to move away from violent behaviours.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar grouped question UIN 18471 question first answered 20/03/2024 15:17:17 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1565625

	registered interest
	date	10/01/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Victims' Commissioner: Public Appointments
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on victims of crime of the vacancy for the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales.
	tabling member constituency	Lewisham East
	tabling member printed	Janet Daby
	uin	120166
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2023 answer text <p>A campaign to recruit a new Victims’ Commissioner is underway, and we expect to identify a new Victims’ Commissioner by the Spring. The Office of the Victims’ Commissioner continues to operate during this interim period, and we are working closely at Ministerial and official level with the sector to ensure the voices of victims and witnesses continue to be heard.</p><p>In May 2022, we published our landmark draft Victims Bill and wider package of measures, to improve victims' experiences of the criminal justice system. The Bill will enshrine the overarching principles of the Victims’ Code in primary legislation; increase oversight of how criminal justice agencies treat victims; and enable improvements in the quality and consistency of support services for victims.</p><p>Alongside these measures, we are more than quadrupling the funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41m in 2009/10.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 16/01/2023 16:02:12 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4698 label Biography information for Janet Daby

1565621

	registered interest
	date	10/01/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Victims' Commissioner: Public Appointments
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to announce the appointment of the new Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales.
	tabling member constituency	Lewisham East
	tabling member printed	Janet Daby
	uin	120163
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2023 answer text <p>A campaign to recruit a new Victims’ Commissioner is underway, and we expect to identify a new Victims’ Commissioner by the spring.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 16/01/2023 11:12:40 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4698 label Biography information for Janet Daby

1689248

	registered interest
	date	16/02/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Remand in Custody: Children
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost of remanding a child into the community is.
	tabling member constituency	Lewisham East
	tabling member printed	Janet Daby
	uin	14174
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/02/2024 answer text <p>A child being remanded into the community whilst awaiting trial can cover a wide range of arrangements, including where a child lives at home or away from home.</p><p>It is the responsibility of local authorities to arrange a suitable placement when a child is remanded to Local Authority Accommodation, and to fund these arrangements. We do not mandate or hold central data for all community remand episodes and cannot therefore provide a simple average.</p><p>However, based on Department for Education data, and Department for Education calculations based on data from the Personal Social Services Research Unit respectively, the average unit cost of foster care (for all children, not just those remanded by the courts) was £41,070 per annum in 2023/24, whilst the equivalent cost for residential care was £263,984. The Ministry of Justice’s Remand Review (2022) provides some examples of the cost of community remand where the child is supervised while living at home.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 22/02/2024 14:40:58 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4698 label Biography information for Janet Daby

1544630

	registered interest
	date	22/11/2022
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts: Standards
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made a comparative assessment of variations in the length of waiting lists in (a) county and (b) family courts in each region of England.
	tabling member constituency	Manchester, Gorton
	tabling member printed	Afzal Khan
	uin	93634
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/11/2022 answer text <p>A comparative assessment of variations in the lengths of waiting lists in the county and family courts in each region of England is not available, however the Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly statistics on civil and family justice on the GOV.UK website. These datasets were most recently updated in September and October 2022: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-justice-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2022" target="_blank">Civil justice statistics quarterly: April to June 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2022#full-publication-update-history" target="_blank">Family Court Statistics Quarterly: April to June 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p>The impact of the pandemic in courts has been felt across all jurisdictions. However, the impact has been uneven across England and Wales, with civil and family court users in some areas experiencing longer waiting times than in others.</p><p>We are continually working, in close partnership with the judiciary, to improve the service in the county and family courts. We are replacing inefficient processes with our reformed digital services, using available courtroom capacity and supporting the use of remote hearings (where a judge deems it appropriate) to maximise the number of sitting days utilised in the jurisdiction.</p><p>These efforts are beginning to show improvements, for example, in possession cases measures of timeliness to first hearing have improved, with over 90% of courts now offering a first hearing within eight weeks compared to 60% in January.</p><p>The MoJ and the judiciary have taken and are taking action to increase judicial capacity across all jurisdictions. This includes a recruitment programme of around 1,000 judges and tribunal members in 2022/23. HMCTS is also working to ensure we have sufficient staffing resource in place to support the number of sitting days utilised across jurisdictions.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 25/11/2022 13:59:52 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4671 label Biography information for Afzal Khan