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1545100

registered interest
date	23/11/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Service: Staff
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether the number of prison staff declined between 2009 and 2017; if so, by what percentage the number declined; and whether any such decline has since been redressed.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL3701
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/12/2022 answer text <p>The number of public sector prison staff declined from 46,889 FTE as of 31 March 2009 to 31,232 FTE as of 31 March 2017. This was a decline of 15,657 (33%).</p><p>Since then, the number of public sector prison staff has increased to stand at 35,575 FTE as of 30 September 2022; an increase of 14% since March 2017.</p><p>Over the last few years, the MoJ has invested in a number of initiatives to improve the recruitment and retention of operational and non-Operational staff across the prison estate. Whilst we face some difficulties in areas of the country where labour markets are particularly challenging, we continue to deliver recruitment marketing campaigns on a variety of channels for all prisons.</p><p>The recent pay award has been seen as a positive move to help retain and recruit new staff. We will be monitoring the impact of the 2022/23 pay award which reflects a significant investment to uplift and reform the prison pay structure. We are continuing to use localised market supplements to increase prison officer pay in 18 sites.</p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 07/12/2022 14:44:23 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1545101

registered interest
date	23/11/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Accommodation
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government how many prisoners are currently being confined to their cells for 23 hours a day; what assessment they have made of the impact of this practice on prisoner (1) self-harm, (2) assaults, and (3) suicides; and what plans they have to reduce the current level of confinement to address any such impacts.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL3702
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/12/2022 answer text <p>No prisons are routinely operating a 23 hour per day or similar lockdown and I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to question <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-11-14/hl3355" target="_blank">HL3355</a> on 29 November 2022.</p><p> </p><p>Maintaining safety continues to be a priority, and where regimes are limited, we continue to prioritise the implementation of key safety interventions. This includes our case management approaches to manage the risk of self-harm and suicide (Assessment, Care in Custody, and Teamwork) and of violent behaviour (Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan), and the delivery of key work, through which prison officers provide one-to-one support for prisoners.</p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 07/12/2022 13:44:11 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1544703

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	Alternatives to Prison: Parents
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bellamy on 21 November (HL3356), what plans they have to revise sentencing guidelines to indicate the importance of avoiding custodial sentences for parents of one or more small children, whenever this is practicable.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL3651
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/11/2022 answer text <p>The Sentencing Council is the independent body that has responsibility for the creation and amendment of sentencing guidelines. Accordingly, it decides on its own priorities and workplan. The noble Lord may wish to approach the Sentencing Council directly to share with them any concerns.</p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 30/11/2022 12:54:59 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1542100

registered interest
date	14/11/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Security
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government which of His Majesty’s Prisons are still operating a 23-hour per day or similar lockdown; what are the reasons for the continued use of this practice; and what plans they have, if any, to stop this practice.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL3355
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/11/2022 answer text <p>Prisons operate regimes that are Safe, Decent, Secure, Resilient and Sustainable and most prisons are routinely operating normal regimes. Prisons will from time to time have to make difficult decisions on how they deploy limited staff resources to best facilitate activities and services using their ‘Regime Management Plans’. In the past 4 months, a small minority of prisons, including HMP Long Lartin and HMP Swaleside have had to significantly restrict their regimes for short periods due to staffing shortfalls. The Operations Stability and Resourcing Panel of HMPPS meets weekly to provide support to those prisons with the most acute resourcing pressures, where this is impacting the stability of the prison.</p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 29/11/2022 17:32:41 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1542101

registered interest
date	14/11/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Alternatives to Prison: Parents
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to recommend non-custodial sentences whenever possible for parents of multiple children, and (2) to maintain strong family links and relationships during prison sentences, in order to reduce re-offending.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL3356
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/11/2022 answer text <p>Sentencing is entirely a matter for our independent courts. The sentencing guidelines specify ‘sole or primary carer for dependent relatives’ as a factor reducing seriousness or reflecting personal mitigation. Courts must strike a balance between the legitimate aims to be served by custody and the effect that sentence has on the family life of others, especially children.</p><p> </p><p>The Probation Service’s Pre-sentence Reports help the court in their sentencing decisions and consider the potential significant impact of imprisonment on any dependants (including unborn children).</p><p> </p><p>There will, however, always be some cases where the seriousness of the offending is such that a custodial sentence is necessary. We want to provide the best rehabilitative regimes possible to help break the reoffending cycle as we know maintaining positive family relationships is an important factor in reducing reoffending.</p><p> </p><p>We have worked to embed all 19 of the recommendations made by Lord Farmer in his 2017 review to strengthen family ties for male prisoners and have completed 25 out of 33 recommendations from his subsequent review focused on strengthening family ties for female offenders.</p><p> </p><p>Our work includes requiring prisons to produce local strategies setting out how prisoners will have access to family contact; introducing a national families performance measure; and deploying secure video calling for families across the prison estate.</p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 21/11/2022 16:37:56 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1521499

registered interest
date	12/10/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Women's Centres: Finance
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the sufficiency of the £24 million of new funding for Women’s Centres announced on 1 September in (a) preventing the closure of any of the existing 40 such Centres, and (b) enabling the opening of new Centres in areas where offending by women is most prevalent; and (2) the extent to which such funding can reduce the need to provide new prison spaces for women.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL2539
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/10/2022 answer text <p>On 1 September 2022, we announced new investment of up to £24 million in the period 2022 to 2025 to support women in or at risk of contact with the criminal justice system: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-invested-to-support-female-offenders" target="_blank">Millions invested to support female offenders - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>. This includes up to £12 million available to pay the core costs of women’s community sector organisations, reflecting historic demand in the sector for running costs and overheads, which are not always covered through wider local and national funding streams. Core costs funding will be allocated to the twelve probation regions in England and Wales in proportion to women’s community caseload in each region.</p><p>In addition, up to £8.4 million is available to invest in new services and interventions.</p><p>The continued existence and viability of the women’s community sector is vital to support the delivery of the main aims of the Government’s Female Offender Strategy, particularly fewer women entering the criminal justice system and fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully.</p><p>New accommodation that is decent, safe and secure and supports the modernisation of the prison estate is under development to improve custodial conditions for women. Should these places not be required in future we have committed to using them to close down existing older, less suitable accommodation in the women’s estate.</p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 26/10/2022 15:39:06 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1471261

registered interest
date	16/06/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Arts and Education
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to restore (1) education programmes, and (2) access to (a) training, and (b) the arts, for prisoners, where those have been restricted by (i) COVID-19, and (ii) staff shortages.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL1034
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/06/2022 answer text <p>Staff recruitment was suspended from March 2020 until August 2020 whilst we implemented Covid-19 secure practices in response to Government guidelines on social distancing and non-essential travel. While this created a gap in our pipeline of new officers, once the process restarted, we used initiatives such as the accelerated launch of 60+ recruitment campaigns and the use of targeted overtime and mutual aid across prisons, to ensure establishments facing the greatest challenges received the most support.</p><p> </p><p>Although face-to-face teaching was temporarily suspended due to safety concerns at the start of the pandemic, education continued via remote learning. With the pandemic National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services having been lifted on 9 May 2022, we are now getting increasing numbers of learners back in the classroom and participating in activities, like the arts, that support rehabilitation where it is safe to do so.</p><p> </p><p>As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, published on 7 December 2021, we are committed to improving education in prisons and we are delivering a Prisoner Education Service within this Parliament to raise prisoners’ levels of numeracy, literacy, skills and qualifications with the aim of helping them secure jobs upon release and drive down reoffending. This work includes investment in digital infrastructure, more training that delivers the skills employers need, more education experts to support Governors and improved support for prisoners with additional learning needs.</p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 30/06/2022 14:00:07 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1421526

registered interest
date	09/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners' Release: Females
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by St Martin in the Fields, London Prisons Mission and Prison Reform Trust Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison, published in October 2020; and what steps they intend to take in response.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL6128
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/02/2022 answer text <p>We welcome the findings from the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison report. Our Prisons Strategy White Paper sets out our vision that no-one subject to probation supervision, including female offenders, is released from prison homeless.</p><p>To achieve this, HM Prison and Probation Service launched a new transitional accommodation service providing up to 12 weeks’ accommodation and support for those leaving prison at risk of homelessness. The service was initially launched last July in five probation areas in England. From 2024-5, we will invest £200m per year to transform our approach to rehabilitation. This includes expanding the transitional accommodation service across England and Wales to support the thousands of people who leave prison each year without accommodation and provide improved access to employment support through rolling out dedicated employment leads in all resettlement prisons, as announced in the Prison Strategy White Paper published in December 2021.</p><p>The transitional accommodation takes account of the needs of women, including those with complex needs, with accommodation provision dedicated to single gender usage as required.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Wolfson of Tredegar question first answered 23/02/2022 15:38:14 answering member 4901 label Biography information for Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1420018

registered interest
date	04/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Slavery: Victims
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether compensation has been paid to victims of (1) exploitation, and (2) abuse, following recent convictions connected with modern slavery; and if so, whether any such payments came from (a) the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, or (b) from assets seized.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL5978
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/02/2022 answer text <p>We are unable to comment on individual cases.</p><p>The GB-wide Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (the Scheme) provides state-funded compensation to victims of violent crime who may be unable to access compensation from other routes. Payments are available for physical or psychological injuries resulting directly from a crime of violence. Compensation under the Scheme is not dependent on the conviction of the perpetrator, and is separate to any order made by the sentencing court.</p><p>Victims of modern slavery who have been conclusively identified as such (through the National Referral Mechanism) may be eligible for compensation under the Scheme regardless of residence status or nationality, subject to wider eligibility criteria. The crime committed must constitute a crime of violence as defined under Annex B of the Scheme. Victims are compensated for the injuries they have sustained rather than the nature of the incident (with the exception of sexual assault or abuse). The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority which operates the Scheme does not hold data on compensation awarded to victims of modern slavery.</p><p>The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 provides police forces and other enforcement agencies with the statutory framework to recover the proceeds of crime from criminals and those engaged in unlawful conduct. This includes powers which allow courts to confiscate the proceeds of crime following a criminal conviction. A court imposing a Confiscation Order can also order an offender to pay compensation to the victim of their crime. If the offender does not have the means to satisfy both a Confiscation Order and a Compensation Order, the court can order that the Compensation Order be paid from the sums recovered as part of the Confiscation Order.</p><p>Data is not held on compensation paid to victims from modern slavery related asset recoveries.</p> answering member printed Lord Wolfson of Tredegar question first answered 17/02/2022 11:35:12 answering member 4901 label Biography information for Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton

1362010

registered interest
date	20/10/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Sentencing: Parents
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to issue sentencing guidelines to prevent harm to dependent children of those being sentenced, particularly mothers; and what plans they have to table amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill for that purpose.
tabling member printed	Lord Hylton
uin	HL3231
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/11/2021 answer text <p>Sentencing guidelines are issued by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, which is independent of Parliament and Government. When sentencing, courts are required by law to follow any relevant guidelines, unless satisfied that it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.</p><p> </p><p>Reflecting the principles established by the Court of Appeal in <em>R v Petherick</em>, the Council’s <em>Imposition of Community and Custodial Sentences</em> sentencing guideline is clear that, where an offender is on the cusp of custody, imprisonment should not be imposed where there would be an impact on dependants which would make a custodial sentence disproportionate to achieving the aims of sentencing. Even where the impact on dependants would not make a custodial sentence disproportionate, the <em>Imposition </em>guideline makes clear that the court should determine the shortest custodial sentence commensurate with the seriousness of the offence and also requires sentencers to consider whether a sentence can be suspended. The factors for sentencers to consider which might indicate circumstances in favour of suspending a custodial sentence include ‘realistic prospect of rehabilitation’, ‘strong personal mitigation’ and ‘where immediate custody will result in significant harmful impact upon others’.</p><p> </p><p>Sentencing guidelines also specify that being a ‘sole or primary carer for dependent relatives’ is a mitigating factor, which can be taken into consideration by the courts when determining a sentence. In 2019, the Council issued an expanded explanation for this factor which clarifies that where custody is unavoidable, consideration of the impact on dependants may be relevant to the length of the sentence imposed and whether the sentence can be suspended. It also makes clear that when a court is sentencing an offender who is pregnant, relevant considerations may include the effect of the sentence on the health of the offender and the unborn child.</p> answering member printed Lord Wolfson of Tredegar question first answered 03/11/2021 16:43:41 answering member 4901 label Biography information for Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
tabling member	2018 label Biography information for Lord Hylton