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1338488

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Training
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps he has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in his Department.
tabling member constituency	Shipley
tabling member printed	Philip Davies
uin	19546
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>In December 2020, the Government Equalities Office commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team for a summary of the evidence on unconscious bias and diversity training. The report highlighted that ‘there is currently no evidence that this training changes behaviour in the long term or improves workplace equality in terms of representation of women, ethnic minorities or other minority groups’. It also states that there is emerging evidence of unintended negative consequences.</p><p>In light of these findings, Ministers concluded that the unconscious bias learning provision did not achieve its aims and should be phased out in the Civil Service.</p><p>The Ministry of Justice has taken the following actions to phase out Unconscious Bias training.</p><p>In December 2020, department Senior Leadership Group directors, along with HR practitioners in Learning &amp; Development and Diversity &amp; Inclusion, were alerted to the withdrawal of Unconscious Bias training. Guidance explained that MoJ group should also look to wind-up the use of unconscious bias stand-alone products.</p><p>The same information was also cascaded through the Diversity &amp; Inclusion and Learning &amp; Development networks in department business areas, staff support networks and through subject champions.</p><p>The Diversity, Inclusion &amp; Wellbeing team is currently refreshing the strategic approach to diversity and inclusion. In the meantime, staff who are looking for diversity training are encouraged to make use of 'Inclusion in the Civil Service', a revised version of Diversity and Inclusion that has been added to the Civil Service Learning website. This includes four modules:</p><ol><li>Equality, diversity and inclusion in the Civil Service</li><li>Our inclusive workplace</li><li>Our customers</li><li>The legal framework</li></ol><p> </p><p>Unconscious Bias has also been removed from the department Learning Management System and the 'Essential Learning' learner pathway has been updated to include 'Inclusion in the Civil Service' instead.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 29/06/2021 16:38:35 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies

1338548

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Females
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many temporary cells were installed in women's prisons since April 2020 to limit the spread of covid-19 in prisons.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham West and Penge
tabling member printed	Ellie Reeves
uin	19655
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>In response to 19655, A total of 112 temporary accommodation cells have been installed and are available for use in the women’s estate at HMP &amp; YOI Drake Hall, HMP &amp; YOI East Sutton Park, HMP Foston Hall and HMP &amp; YOI Askham Grange to limit the spread of covid-19 in the women’s prison estate.</p><p> </p><p>In response to 19656, the expansion of the women’s prison estate is still at a relatively early feasibility investigation stage. However, the initial sites under consideration are: HMP Drake Hall, HMP Eastwood Park, HMP Foston Hall, HMP Send and HMP Styal. Final decisions will only be taken on each site once surveys and investigations have been completed, and after the established local consultation and planning application processes have been concluded. All sites are existing women's prisons and there are currently no plans to expand places for women anywhere else as part of this project.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk grouped question UIN 19656 question first answered 29/06/2021 16:29:22 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	4620 label Biography information for Ellie Reeves

1338549

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Females
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department's announcement of 23 January 2021, which sites have been identified for the building of 500 new prison places for women.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham West and Penge
tabling member printed	Ellie Reeves
uin	19656
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>In response to 19655, A total of 112 temporary accommodation cells have been installed and are available for use in the women’s estate at HMP &amp; YOI Drake Hall, HMP &amp; YOI East Sutton Park, HMP Foston Hall and HMP &amp; YOI Askham Grange to limit the spread of covid-19 in the women’s prison estate.</p><p> </p><p>In response to 19656, the expansion of the women’s prison estate is still at a relatively early feasibility investigation stage. However, the initial sites under consideration are: HMP Drake Hall, HMP Eastwood Park, HMP Foston Hall, HMP Send and HMP Styal. Final decisions will only be taken on each site once surveys and investigations have been completed, and after the established local consultation and planning application processes have been concluded. All sites are existing women's prisons and there are currently no plans to expand places for women anywhere else as part of this project.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk grouped question UIN 19655 question first answered 29/06/2021 16:29:22 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	4620 label Biography information for Ellie Reeves

1338582

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Rape: Criminal Proceedings
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what most recent steps his Department has taken to improve the (a) prosecution and (b) conviction rates for rape in (i) Newport West constituency, (ii) Wales and (iii) England.
tabling member constituency	Newport West
tabling member printed	Ruth Jones
uin	19679
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>The Government has recognised that the decline in the number of rape and serious sexual offences being prosecuted in England and Wales is a cause for significant concern and has carried out an end-to-end review into this topic.</p><p> </p><p>The review revealed wide-ranging reasons behind the fall in cases reaching court, including delays in the investigation process, a lack of specialist and consistent support for victims, and an increase in invasive requests for their personal data. We have published an ambitious Action Plan seeks to directly address these issues and increase the number of cases being referred by the police, referred to the CPS and getting to court, no matter where they are across England and Wales.</p><p> </p><p>Steps being taken include better data extraction technology, launching new pathfinder projects that involve greater focus on perpetrators’ offending patterns and further piloting of pre-recorded cross examination.</p> answering member constituency North West Hampshire answering member printed Kit Malthouse question first answered 29/06/2021 16:34:57 answering member 4495 label Biography information for Kit Malthouse
tabling member	4716 label Biography information for Ruth Jones

1338584

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the announcement, Lord chancellor takes immediate action to move children from Rainsbrook, published on 16 June 2021, what recent steps he has taken to tackle issues at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre.
tabling member constituency	Newport West
tabling member printed	Ruth Jones
uin	19680
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>Following the invoking of the Urgent Notification protocol at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre (STC) last December, we ordered the provider MTC to take the immediate action necessary to address the unacceptable failings at Rainsbrook, including a focus on ensuring all children in the Reverse Cohorting Unit had a suitable amount of time out of their room. During this period, the Youth Custody Service (YCS) enhanced monitoring activity at the centre whilst deploying an experienced senior manager to the centre to provide additional support and operational oversight.</p><p> </p><p>Ofsted acknowledged that issues relating to children reverse cohorting at the centre have been addressed, and that the YCS had strengthened its oversight of the STC. It is clear, however, in particular throughout May, that measures taken have not been sufficient to resolve the long-standing issues round staffing, safety, and on-site operational grip. That is why we are currently transferring all children out of the centre to alternative secure accommodation, with around a third of the children having already transferred from Rainsbrook.</p><p> </p><p>Whilst our focus remains on ensuring the wellbeing of the children during the ongoing transfer process, work is separately ongoing with regard the future of the centre. A further announcement will be made on this in due course.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 29/06/2021 16:28:16 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	4716 label Biography information for Ruth Jones

1338585

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Youth Custody: Ethnic Groups
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the over-representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic children in youth custody.
tabling member constituency	Newport West
tabling member printed	Ruth Jones
uin	19681
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>We want people to have confidence in a justice system that is fair and open—one where no person suffers discrimination of any sort.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to prioritise the understanding and tackling of disparity within the youth justice system.</p><p> </p><p>The MoJ Youth Justice Policy Unit, the Youth Justice Board and the Youth Custody Service work closely together in seeking to tackle racial disparities in the youth justice system. Work in this area includes providing the tools and data to help frontline youth justice services to understand the needs of ethnic minority children, work with the Magistrates’ Association to build awareness of disproportionality among sentencers, securing over £1m in funding to use physical activity to improve outcomes for 11,000 ethnic minority children at risk of entering the criminal justice system and delivering wide-ranging work in the Youth Custody Service on workforce diversity, capturing the voices of children in setting YCS culture, driving forward local plans to address disproportionality and staff training on difference and cultural needs.</p><p> </p><p>More broadly, work directly within the youth justice system can only partially address inequalities, as ‘upstream’ factors which increase the likelihood of a child appearing in the youth justice system are also disproportionate. Cross Government work on education, health and policing, all important areas upstream of MoJ’s remit, recognises the importance of equalities.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 29/06/2021 15:13:23 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	4716 label Biography information for Ruth Jones

1338587

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Courts: Wales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase court capacity in (a) Newport West constituency and (b) Wales.
tabling member constituency	Newport West
tabling member printed	Ruth Jones
uin	19682
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>Recovering from the impacts of Covid-19 and keeping our court and tribunal premises safe and open is HMCTS’ top priority. We have introduced a range of important measures to increase available court capacity, including the installation of plexiglass screens, the opening of Nightingale courts and use of virtual hearings.</p><p> </p><p>In Wales we have opened a Nightingale court at Swansea Civic Centre, providing additional Crown Court capacity. We have installed temporary modular buildings at Caernarfon and Swansea Crown Courts to facilitate jury trials by creating additional space for deliberation, and we are utilising space at Cardiff City Hall to house jurors in waiting, thus enabling more courtrooms in Cardiff Crown Court to accommodate jury trials. We have also completed estates work that has increased our ability to hear multi-handler trials by increasing defendant dock capacity across four Crown courtrooms in Wales.</p><p> </p><p>In Newport, all Crown and Magistrates Courts rooms are open with social distancing measures in place. We have also conducted estates work to increase Crown Court defendant capacity for multi-handed trials so that the court can now hear cases with up to seven defendants. Similarly, all Civil, Family and Tribunal sites in Newport are open and remote hearings are also being effectively utilised.</p><p> </p><p>We continue to keep our recovery plans for Wales and Newport under close review.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 29/06/2021 16:36:38 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4716 label Biography information for Ruth Jones

1338607

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Contempt of Court: Transgender People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference the advice of Chapter 12 of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, what assessment has been made of the potential effect of the advice that the court may consider making reporting restrictions under section 4 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 to prevent disclosure of a transgender person’s previous name and transgender history or it may direct a private hearing on the freedom of the press.
tabling member constituency	Gainsborough
tabling member printed	Sir Edward Leigh
uin	19486
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice, the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College and are outside the remit of the Ministry of Justice which means that no assessment is undertaken by the Ministry of Justice of its effect.</p><p> </p><p>The Equal Treatment Bench Book (ETBB), reviewed by a judicial editorial panel, with content from judicial experts and other subject experts including academics and external bodies, is a general guidance document designed to encourage effective communication between all court users. It is not legally binding on judges or court users, who are free to decide what is appropriate in any given set of circumstances.</p><p> </p><p>The content referred to in chapter 12 reflects the current law in the Gender Recognition Act 2004 regarding the revealing of transgender history of applicants for a Gender Recognition Certificate. It is for individual judges to balance reporting restrictions with the requirements of open justice in any particular case involving a transgender person where transgender history is not at all relevant to the subject of the proceedings.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 29/06/2021 16:38:27 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	345 label Biography information for Sir Edward Leigh

1338646

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison and Probation Service: Crimes of Violence
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 adequacy of the (a) decisions taken and (b) processes in place to protect staff at Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service in the period leading up to the stabbing of a prison officer at HMP Swansea on 12 June 2021.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Ms Lyn Brown
uin	19558
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>A prison officer at HMP Swansea attended hospital following an assault by a prisoner on 12 June. The incident was resolved quickly and our thoughts are with the injured officer at this time.</p><p>The incident has been referred to the police and, in line with usual practice, an internal review of the incident has been commissioned to look at the decisions taken prior to the incident. This review is ongoing and it would not be appropriate to comment at this time.</p><p>We are committed to prisons being a safe place to work and providing prison officers with the right support, training and tools to empower them to do their jobs.</p><p>We do not tolerate violence on our hardworking officers, and we will work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to bring perpetrators to justice.</p><p>We are giving officers tools like PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer, as well as access to post incident care teams, occupational health support and counselling for those who need it. We are spending £100 million to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars. This is funding tough measures including X-ray body scanners, drug dogs and phone-blocking technology.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 29/06/2021 16:26:33 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown

1338647

registered interest
date	21/06/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Crimes of Violence
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service has taken to increase staff safety across the prisons network following the stabbing of a prison officer at HMP Swansea on 12 June 2021.
tabling member constituency	West Ham
tabling member printed	Ms Lyn Brown
uin	19559
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/06/2021 answer text <p>A prison officer at HMP Swansea attended hospital following an assault by a prisoner on 12 June. The incident was resolved quickly and our thoughts are with the injured officer at this time.</p><p>Violence against our hard-working prison officers is unacceptable and will never be tolerated.</p><p>We work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to bring the perpetrators to justice. 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 safely.</p><p>We are introducing PAVA – a synthetic pepper spray – to protect staff and prisoners from incidents where there is serious violence, or an imminent or perceived risk of serious violence. We want to ensure PAVA defuses tensions, not creates them. This is why only prisons which have rolled out the key worker scheme will get PAVA. Alongside the rollout of PAVA we are introducing a new Personal Safety package; SPEAR (Spontaneous Protection Enabling Accelerated Response), so PAVA will be introduced as part of a wider package of skills for staff to resolve and deescalate incidents.</p><p>We continue to support the effective use of the 6,000 Body Worn Video Cameras across the estate, which can provide high-quality evidence to support prosecutions.</p><p>Prisons are required to have safe systems of work in place for items that present a risk to personal safety, for example razors.</p><p>We also provide care teams, occupational health support and counselling for members of staff across the estate.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 29/06/2021 16:27:26 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	1583 label Biography information for Ms Lyn Brown