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92682

registered interest
date	10/10/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the current national population is of (a) HM prisons and (b) privately-run prisons.
tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
uin	209853
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/11/2014 answer text <p>Individual prison population and capacity information for every prison in England and Wales, as well as the total population and useable operational capacity of the prison estate is published monthly on the Ministry of Justice website at: <a title="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2014" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2014" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2014</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The latest monthly publication shows that on Friday 31 October 2014 the total prison population in England and Wales was 84,578 of which 14,891 prisoners were held in private prisons. Population information for National Offender Management Service operated immigration removal centres has not been included.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/11/2014 14:43:14 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett

92685

registered interest
date	10/10/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Violence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what oversight mechanisms are in place to ensure that prisoners in private prisons are safe from violence.
tabling member constituency	Hemsworth
tabling member printed	Jon Trickett
uin	209852
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/11/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes the issue of violence in prison very seriously. It has systems in place to deal with perpetrators quickly and robustly, with serious incidents referred to the police for prosecution. Current policy contained in Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 64/2011 states that every verbal or physical act of violence must be challenged.</p><p> </p><p>NOMS is committed to exploring options to continue to reduce violence to ensure prisons are safer places for everyone. It is currently reviewing the policy and practice of the management of violence with the aim of implementing new policy and guidance in early 2015.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 19/11/2014 15:27:53 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	410 label Biography information for Jon Trickett

92032

registered interest
date	26/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Drugs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents of confiscation of (a) mephedrone, (b) BZP, (c) spice and (d) ketamine there were in prisons in England and Wales in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Tooting
tabling member printed	Sadiq Khan
uin	209374
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes the issue of all contraband in prisons extremely seriously and deploys a comprehensive range of robust searching and security measures to detect items of contraband both at the point of entry to the prison and concealed within the prison. We do not tolerate drugs in prison and anyone caught with them will be punished and could face further prosecution.</p><p> </p><p>The success of NOMS Drug Strategy is illustrated by the reduction of drug misuse - as measured by the random mandatory drug testing programme - which has declined by 17.0 percentage points over the past 17 years (positive rates were 24.4% in 1996/7 and 7.4% in 2013/14) despite the fact that more drugs are being tested for.</p><p> </p><p>New psychoactive substances (NPS) are a recent issue affecting many parts of society, both here and abroad, including our prisons. NOMS is working with its partners to develop methods for testing for NPS and preventing them from entering establishments. Work is also taking place to increase levels of understanding about the risks that NPS present to offenders, with a view to providing them and those who work with them in prisons and the community with appropriate information, guidance and support.</p><p> </p><p>The Government recently introduced an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill to expand prisons' powers to test prisoners for non-controlled drugs. This would allow prison staff to conduct mandatory drug tests on prisoners for non-controlled drugs, such as new psychoactive substances and medicines, if the required tests were available.</p><p> </p><p>All figures in this answer have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data has been extracted by searching for the exact terms given in the question and not any slang or alternative spellings. The data are not subject to audit.</p><p> </p><p>The table below gives the number of seizures in prisons in England and Wales in the timeframe requested of Mephedrone, BZP, Spice and Ketamine, and described exactly as such on the database.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> </td><td><p><strong>2010</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2011</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014 to 31 July</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Mephedrone</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>BZP</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Spice</p></td><td><p>15</p></td><td><p>86</p></td><td><p>133</p></td><td><p>262</p></td><td><p>430</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Ketamine</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>5</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>TOTAL</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>16</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>90</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>138</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>267</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>436</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>The term “Legal Highs” represents hundreds of different substances of which spice is just one. To try to calculate the instances of all such substances being confiscated would therefore only be possible at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 21/10/2014 10:53:54 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan

92033

registered interest
date	26/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Drugs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents of confiscation of legal highs there were in prisons in England and Wales in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Tooting
tabling member printed	Sadiq Khan
uin	209371
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes the issue of all contraband in prisons extremely seriously and deploys a comprehensive range of robust searching and security measures to detect items of contraband both at the point of entry to the prison and concealed within the prison. We do not tolerate drugs in prison and anyone caught with them will be punished and could face further prosecution.</p><p> </p><p>The success of NOMS Drug Strategy is illustrated by the reduction of drug misuse - as measured by the random mandatory drug testing programme - which has declined by 17.0 percentage points over the past 17 years (positive rates were 24.4% in 1996/7 and 7.4% in 2013/14) despite the fact that more drugs are being tested for.</p><p> </p><p>New psychoactive substances are a recent issue affecting many parts of society, both here and abroad, including our prisons. NOMS is working with its partners to develop methods for testing for NPS and preventing them from entering establishments. Work is also taking place to increase levels of understanding about the risks that NPS present to offenders, with a view to providing them and those who work with them in prisons and the community with appropriate information, guidance and support.</p><p> </p><p>The Government recently introduced an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill to expand prisons' powers to test prisoners for non-controlled drugs. This would allow prison staff to conduct mandatory drug tests on prisoners for non-controlled drugs, such as new psychoactive substances and medicines, if the required tests were available.</p><p> </p><p>All figures in this answer have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data has been extracted by searching for the exact terms given in the question and not any slang or alternative spellings. The data are not subject to audit.</p><p> </p><p>The table below gives the number of seizures in prisons in England and Wales in the timeframe requested of Mephedrone, BZP, Spice and Ketamine, and described exactly as such on the database.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> </td><td><p><strong>2010</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2011</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014 to 31 July</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Mephedrone</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>BZP</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Spice</p></td><td><p>15</p></td><td><p>86</p></td><td><p>133</p></td><td><p>262</p></td><td><p>430</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Ketamine</p></td><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>5</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>TOTAL</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>16</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>90</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>138</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>267</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>436</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>The term “Legal Highs” represents hundreds of different substances of which spice is just one. To try to calculate the instances of all such substances being confiscated would therefore only be possible at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 21/10/2014 11:17:40 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan

92061

registered interest
date	26/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Imams
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) adult and (b) youth secure estate establishments have imams.
tabling member constituency	Tooting
tabling member printed	Sadiq Khan
uin	209538
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/11/2014 answer text <p>There were a total of 70 adult prisons which had one or more directly employed Muslim chaplain on 30 June 2014, representing 65% of all adult establishments. 14 establishments in the youth secure estate had one or more directly employed Muslim Chaplain on 30 June 2014, representing 93% of the establishments. This information includes both public and private sector establishments.</p><p> </p><p>Access to Muslim Chaplains is more widespread than it appears from these figures. There are <del class="ministerial">393 imams employed across the prison estate, and the majority of establishments have access to Muslim Chaplains even if they don’t have a directly employed Muslim Chaplain attached to the establishment.</del><ins class="ministerial">100 imams employed across the prison estate and additionally over 100 Muslim Chaplains appointed on a sessional basis. All prisons have multi faith chaplaincy teams to provide and enable religious and pastoral care. These teams invariably include at least one Muslim Chaplain to provide for the religious needs of the Muslim prisoners. There are however one or two prisons where it has not yet been possible to appoint a Muslim Chaplain and the Muslim Adviser is working to appoint these. Where possible, an existing Muslim Chaplain, or one of the Muslim Chaplaincy HQ Advisers, aim to lead the prayers in those prisons on an occasional basis.</ins></p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/11/2014 17:53:50 question first ministerially corrected 08/12/2014 14:37:24 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous previous answer version 28636 answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan

92063

registered interest
date	26/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Ministers of Religion
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison chaplains there are of each faith.
tabling member constituency	Tooting
tabling member printed	Sadiq Khan
uin	209537
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/11/2014 answer text <p>The number of prison chaplains that were directly employed in the Prison Service of England and Wales as at 30 June 2014 can be found in the table below. The information covers both the public and private sectors. Where directly employed Chaplains are not available religious services are also provided by Chaplains engaged on a sessional basis.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Table: Directly Employed Prison Service Chaplains - as at 30 June 2014</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Religion</p></td><td><p>Headcount</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Christian</p></td><td><p>240</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Muslim</p></td><td><p>100</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sikh</p></td><td><p>~</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Hindu</p></td><td><p>~</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Buddhist</p></td><td><p>~</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Unknown / Others</p></td><td><p>40</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>390</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 in line with the department’s policy for presenting staffing data. Totals are formed from unrounded parts prior to rounding. For this reason, totals may not equal the sum of their rounded parts.</p><p>The symbol ~ represents 5 or fewer</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/11/2014 16:24:55 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1577 label Biography information for Sadiq Khan

91646

registered interest
date	11/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Victim Personal Statements
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of victims who made personal statements at parole hearings in each of the last 10 years.
tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
uin	209134
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/11/2014 answer text <p /> <p>The victim personal statement (VPS) was introduced in 2007, and provides victims with a valuable opportunity to tell the Parole Board how the prisoner’s offence has affected them or their family and what the impact of the prisoner’s release will be on them.</p><p> </p><p>Victims can submit a VPS in writing, or they can apply to the Parole Board to read it in person, with the presumption that the Parole Board will agree to this. The right to make a VPS to the Parole Board, and to apply to read it in person, was enshrined in the new Victims Code which was implemented in December 2013.</p><p> </p><p>The National Offender Management Service is committed to ensuring that victims are provided with support and information to help them decide whether they wish to make a VPS to the Parole Board.</p><p> </p><p>The National Offender Management Service does not record information centrally in relation to the number of victims who make a VPS, and has not made an estimate of this number. The Government has made a commitment to monitor criminal justice agencies’ compliance with the Victims’ Code and in “Our Commitment to Victims,” published on 15 September 2014, we announced that criminal justice agencies will publish information on how they have improved services for victims from April 2015.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 19/11/2014 17:55:10 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis

91521

registered interest
date	10/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Electronic Tagging
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent on its contract for offender electronic monitoring in (a) 2011-12, (b) 2012-13 and (c) 2013-14.
tabling member constituency	Luton North
tabling member printed	Kelvin Hopkins
uin	209057
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/10/2014 answer text <p>The table below sets out the amounts spent on electronic monitoring services provided by G4S and Serco for the years requested.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>£116,906,087</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13</p></td><td><p>£107,684,810</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013-14</p></td><td><p>£36,987,915</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>The 2013-14 figure is significantly lower as we withheld payment in 2013 once we became aware of long-standing anomalies in the billing arrangements on these contracts. We have since recovered all money owed on the contracts from the suppliers.</p><p> </p><p>In April 2014 Capita took over the management of the electronic monitoring service, on an interim basis until the new service comes into operation. Under these interim arrangements, G4S and Serco no longer have a direct role in delivering the service on the ground – and we have far greater oversight of costs and charging than previously, with direct access to the suppliers’ systems. We continue to manage these arrangements robustly.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 27/10/2014 16:26:45 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	2 label Biography information for Kelvin Hopkins

91525

registered interest
date	10/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Offenders: Rehabilitation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will place in the Library copies of all representations he has received on the consequences of excluding low risk offenders under community service orders from the payment by results model; and what estimate he has made of the potential effect of that conclusion on re-offending rates.
tabling member constituency	Warrington North
tabling member printed	Helen Jones
uin	208833
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2014 answer text <p>We are currently implementing major reforms to probation services in order to bring about a reduction in reoffending, with contracts to transfer ownership of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) on track to be signed by the end of 2014.</p><p> </p><p>The two main elements of the payment mechanism for CRCs are the Fee For Service (FFS) and Payment by Results (PbR). The FFS is primarily paid for mandated activities that deliver the sentence of the court and licence conditions. PbR is paid for the achievement of reductions in reoffending against the baseline historical level and is designed to incentivise bidders to continuously innovate and improve performance throughout the life of the contract.</p><p> </p><p>PbR measurement will be based on a series of offender “cohorts”. These are the groups of offenders whose reoffending will determine the providers’ success or otherwise at reducing reoffending rates. Cohorts will be built up on a quarterly and annual basis and will include offenders released from a custodial sentence and offenders who begin a community order (CO) or a suspended sentence order (SSO). Cohorts will exclude offenders not subject to any of the above disposals, and offenders allocated to the National Probation Service. They will also exclude offenders on a CO or SSO which includes only a single electronically monitored requirement (as CRCs will not be responsible for supervising this group) and offenders who are subject only to an unpaid work requirement (as for this group, the court will not have imposed an additional rehabilitative intervention).</p><p> </p><p>CRCs will be paid for reducing reoffending rates significantly beyond historic levels. Those historic baselines are modelled to exclude the same types of offender that are excluded in the CRCs’ cohorts, thereby allowing a like-for-like comparison.</p><p> </p><p>We have consulted widely on the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms and received and responded to a balance of views. The design of the payment mechanism has been set out in the draft payment mechanism design overview and draft payment mechanism contract schedule, copies of which were deposited in the Library of the House and published on the MoJ website in February 2014.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 21/10/2014 12:46:49 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	432 label Biography information for Helen Jones

91199

registered interest
date	09/09/2014
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Belmarsh Prison
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners held in HMP Belmarsh for what offences were (a) over 70, (b) in a wheelchair, (c) using a walking frame and (d) recorded as having hernia problems from 23 December 2013 to 9 January 2014.
tabling member constituency	Shipley
tabling member printed	Philip Davies
uin	208709
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/11/2014 answer text <p>I am unable to disclose the information requested. Disclosure of this sensitive personal data could lead to individual prisoners being identified due to the low numbers matching the criteria.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous grouped question UIN 208706 question first answered 18/11/2014 15:50:55 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies