The Ministry of Justice\u2019s most comprehensive estimate remains that over the course of a year, approximately 200,000 children may be affected by a parent being in or going to prison. This estimate is based on 2009 survey data.<\/p>
The Prison Strategy White paper detailed our intention to work with other government departments to commission updated research to improve our collective understanding of the overall number of children affected by parental incarceration.<\/p>
As part of this work, changes have been made to the Basic Custody Screening Tool (BCST) to enable us to collect data on entry to prison about how many primary carers are in custody and how many children under the age of 18 are affected by their imprisonment, which means that we can access this information centrally. Questions contained within the BCST are under continuous review to reflect learning from operational colleagues and people with lived experience of prison. While the BCST does include questions on the sex and ages of dependents of prisoners, the collection of this information relies solely on self-declaration of the parent in prison and therefore may raise challenges as to the accuracy or consistency of this information without being able to verify with other sources.<\/p>
The Government is delivering on its white paper commitment to improve our data and evidence in this area, through the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) Programme. BOLD is a £19.7m cross government Shared Outcomes Fund programme which is linking data to enable better evidenced and more joined up cross government services. The purpose of BOLD is to identify the overall scale of the issue by improving our understanding of the number of children affected by parental imprisonment. The BOLD programme aims to do this by exploring data available across government, including information that does not rely on self-disclosure. We expect findings from the project to be published in Spring 2024.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4941", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Bellamy"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Bellamy"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2024-02-19", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : [{"_value" : "HL2276"} , {"_value" : "HL2277"} ], "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2024-02-19T14:55:21.447Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "54"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2024-02-07", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Prisoners: Guardianship and Parents"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask His Majesty's Government what is their most recent estimate for the number of children with (1) a parent in prison, and (2) a primary carer in prison.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4321", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Farmer"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Farmer"} ], "uin" : "HL2278"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/100072", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Home Office"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/100072/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
The Azure card is issued to destitute failed asylum seekers accommodated under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 because they are temporarily unable to leave the United Kingdom. The card can be used at most of the main supermarket chains to purchase food and other essential items. The performance of the card is kept under regular review but the Government is satisfied that it is an effective way of ensuring that recipients are able to meet their essential living needs and are not left destitute.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Government therefore has no plans to abolish the card or change legislation to allow people supported under section 4 to receive cash instead.<\/p>
<\/p>
The total administrative costs of the card scheme since it was introduced in 2009 are approximately £1,515,000. Estimated administrative costs for the current financial year are £200,000.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Government published its response to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee report about asylum procedures in December 2013 (cm 8769). A response to the Committee\u2019s views on section 4 support was set out on page 18-19.<\/p>
<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1091", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Bates"} } , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Bates"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2014-10-28", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "groupedQuestionUIN" : [{"_value" : "HL2277"} , {"_value" : "HL2279"} , {"_value" : "HL2280"} , {"_value" : "HL2281"} ], "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2014-10-28T15:17:55.3415588Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2014-10-21", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Asylum: Finance"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty\u2019s Government what plans they have to abolish the Azure payment card and amend legislation to enable the provision of cash support for all refused asylum seekers until they are either given status in the United Kingdom or return to their country of origin.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3691", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Roberts of Llandudno"} } , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Lord Roberts of Llandudno"} ], "uin" : "HL2278"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }