Ministry of Justice

We are committed to ensuring that robust pre-release plans are created for those leaving custody, so that accommodation and health needs are identified early and the right support is put in place. Dedicated Pre-Release Teams in prisons work closely with individuals to identify immediate needs, coordinate referrals to relevant services, and support continuity between custody and the community.

To support continuity of care and swift access to treatment on release, we have recruited over 67 Health and Justice Partnership Coordinators who strengthen drug and alcohol recovery pathways by building partnerships between prison, probation and treatment providers and we are enabling virtual pre-release appointments with community treatment providers via secure laptops. The Probation Notification Actioning Project, now in place across all prisons, standardises how probation staff are informed of ongoing drug and alcohol treatment needs. NHS England’s RECONNECT service also supports prison leavers with identified health needs, to engage with the right health services in the community. Services work with people up to 12 weeks before release, and 6 months post-release.

In the National Plan to End Homelessness, the Government has committed to reduce the proportion of people released from prison homeless by 50% by the end of this parliament. 50 prison-based Strategic Housing Specialists across England and Wales work with probation teams and Local Authorities to enable a multi-agency approach to securing housing before release. We are also investing in integrating digital community accommodation services to make it easier to identify and match individuals to the right housing-related support at the right time.

The rehabilitation pathway an individual takes, including for individuals convicted of immigration-related offences, is determined by their assessed risk and needs, ensuring interventions are targeted and proportionate.

The Ministry of Justice’s Reducing Reoffending Evidence Synthesis (2025) provides a comprehensive overview of what works to reduce reoffending. The report highlights key factors influencing the likelihood of reoffending, and we are investing in a range of interventions to address these needs and support rehabilitation. This includes accommodation, employment and substance misuse treatment services, including key employment roles in 93 prisons (such as Prison Employment Leads) and Incentivised Substance-Free Living units (ISFLs) in 85 prisons. Depending on the specific risks and needs of the offender, a range of accredited programmes, designed to address offending behaviour, are also available.

The proportion of adults released with an ongoing substance misuse need who engage in treatment within 3 weeks of release increased from 38% in April 2021 to 53% in November 2025. Similarly, employment rates six months after release from prison for those sentenced to 12 months or more have increased from 15% in 20/21 to 38% in 24/25.

The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly statistics on proven reoffending of offenders which can be found here: Proven reoffending statistics - GOV.UK. These include reoffending rates presented in various breakdowns, such as by index offence.

We do not currently have plans to introduce routine publication of reoffending data for immigration-related cases. We keep the contents of our Official Statistics under continuous review, to ensure their compliance with the three pillars of the Code of Practice for Statistics: trustworthiness, quality and value.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) is funding a ‘pathfinder’ pilot project in the West Midlands to better understand why interventions are achieving better outcomes for White children than for Black and Mixed heritage children. It was established in 2024 and its total cost is estimated at £750,000 over four years. The YJB has not yet provided the Ministry of Justice with evidence about the project’s early impact – the project is due to run until spring 2027 and be evaluated subsequently.

The factors contributing to custodial remand outcomes are complex and multi-layered. Outcomes for children of different ethnic backgrounds show disparities. The YJB’s 2021 report ‘Ethnic Disproportionality Remand and Sentencing in the Youth Justice System’ outlines these in more detail. The report found that even after controlling for demographic and offence-related factors, children of Mixed ethnicity and Black children remained more likely to receive a custodial remand than White children. The Ministry of Justice recognises that remand outcomes reflect a combination of factors across the system, including assessments provided to the court and judicial discretion.

All local authorities are required by the YJB’s Data Recording Requirements to submit data that includes consistent and accurate recording of ethnicity data, with quality regularly monitored. The YJB Data Recording Requirements require all YOTs to submit mandatory case level and summary level data to the YJB. This includes the requirements that:

• All YOTs need to accurately record the ethnicity of all children they are supervising and supporting. Ethnicity is self-identified by the child.
• YOTs must use the Government harmonised classifications for ethnicity so as to ensure consistency and comparability.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) is funding a ‘pathfinder’ pilot project in the West Midlands to better understand why interventions are achieving better outcomes for White children than for Black and Mixed heritage children. It was established in 2024 and its total cost is estimated at £750,000 over four years. The YJB has not yet provided the Ministry of Justice with evidence about the project’s early impact – the project is due to run until spring 2027 and be evaluated subsequently.

The factors contributing to custodial remand outcomes are complex and multi-layered. Outcomes for children of different ethnic backgrounds show disparities. The YJB’s 2021 report ‘Ethnic Disproportionality Remand and Sentencing in the Youth Justice System’ outlines these in more detail. The report found that even after controlling for demographic and offence-related factors, children of Mixed ethnicity and Black children remained more likely to receive a custodial remand than White children. The Ministry of Justice recognises that remand outcomes reflect a combination of factors across the system, including assessments provided to the court and judicial discretion.

All local authorities are required by the YJB’s Data Recording Requirements to submit data that includes consistent and accurate recording of ethnicity data, with quality regularly monitored. The YJB Data Recording Requirements require all YOTs to submit mandatory case level and summary level data to the YJB. This includes the requirements that:

• All YOTs need to accurately record the ethnicity of all children they are supervising and supporting. Ethnicity is self-identified by the child.
• YOTs must use the Government harmonised classifications for ethnicity so as to ensure consistency and comparability.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB) is funding a ‘pathfinder’ pilot project in the West Midlands to better understand why interventions are achieving better outcomes for White children than for Black and Mixed heritage children. It was established in 2024 and its total cost is estimated at £750,000 over four years. The YJB has not yet provided the Ministry of Justice with evidence about the project’s early impact – the project is due to run until spring 2027 and be evaluated subsequently.

The factors contributing to custodial remand outcomes are complex and multi-layered. Outcomes for children of different ethnic backgrounds show disparities. The YJB’s 2021 report ‘Ethnic Disproportionality Remand and Sentencing in the Youth Justice System’ outlines these in more detail. The report found that even after controlling for demographic and offence-related factors, children of Mixed ethnicity and Black children remained more likely to receive a custodial remand than White children. The Ministry of Justice recognises that remand outcomes reflect a combination of factors across the system, including assessments provided to the court and judicial discretion.

All local authorities are required by the YJB’s Data Recording Requirements to submit data that includes consistent and accurate recording of ethnicity data, with quality regularly monitored. The YJB Data Recording Requirements require all YOTs to submit mandatory case level and summary level data to the YJB. This includes the requirements that:

• All YOTs need to accurately record the ethnicity of all children they are supervising and supporting. Ethnicity is self-identified by the child.
• YOTs must use the Government harmonised classifications for ethnicity so as to ensure consistency and comparability.

The data necessary to answer these questions is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice.

The data necessary to answer these questions is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice.

The data necessary to answer these questions is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice.

I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 23 December to PQ 100766

The Department has committed £550 million to victim support services over the next three years – the biggest investment in victim support services to date.

The 42 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales, including the Avon and Somerset PCC, receive annual grant funding from the Department’s victim and witness budget. Funds are used to commission local practical, emotional, and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types. This includes ‘core’ funding, allocated at the PCC’s discretion, based on their assessment of local need, and ring-fenced funding for sexual violence and domestic abuse services.

The Department also provides grant funding directly to over 60 specialist organisations through the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF). Activities support victims to cope with their experiences and move forward with their lives, regardless of whether they report the crime to the police. Three organisations in Avon and Somerset receive RASASF funds, offering tailored support to victims of rape and sexual abuse, including Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVA), counselling, therapy, and groupwork.

The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, also commissioned by the Department, provides victims access to vital help and information whenever they need it.

On 1 December 2025, all PCCs and RASASF recipients received confirmation that their grants will be extended for two years until March 2028, with a 2% year-on-year uplift in recognition of the increasing cost of service delivery.

During the criminal justice process, special measures, such as screening the witness from the defendant or giving evidence via live link, are available to victims of rape and sexual offences, who may otherwise feel unable to give evidence.

We are introducing legislation to make access to special measures easier, so eligible victims and witnesses can give their best evidence to the court.

Data on the number of trials declared ineffective due to the non-production of defendants can be found here: Trial effectiveness at the Criminal Courts tool.

In the most recent reported quarter (July to September 2025) – non-production of defendants accounted for less than 2% of ineffective trials.

Securing data on the impact that late production or non-production of defendants has had on sitting time would come at a disproportionate cost, due to the time required to process this information.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for a variety of offences including offences involving the use of illegal number plates on vehicles, in the Outcomes by Offences tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

The number of convictions related to the illegal use of vehicle number plates can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Overall Volumes’ tab and filtering the “HO offence code” drop down for:

• 81403 - Fraud, forgery etc. associated with registration and licensing documents (MOT)

• 81090 - Other motor vehicle licence, trade licence, registration mark, trade plate and registration book offences (except forgery and deception offences) (MOT).

The Net Zero target in the Climate Change Act 2008 is a target for the whole of the UK, not individual Departments or arms-length bodies.

Greening Government Commitments are the central framework setting out the actions UK Government Departments and their agencies will take to reduce their impacts on the environment, including setting targets to reduce emissions, during the framework period.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs is reviewing the Greening Government Commitments to ensure that they remain aligned with Government priorities.

HMCTS’s priority is to ensure all funded sitting days are fully utilised each financial year through active courtroom management. Last year we sat 107,771 Crown court sitting days, representing over 99% of our allocation, and we remain on track to deliver all allocated days this year. While I acknowledge existing challenges in relation to the maintenance of the court estate, this Government is increasing investment to address this - £148.5 million was allocated to court and tribunal maintenance and project funding this financial year, £28.5 million more than the previous government funded last financial year.

Estate capacity is not the limiting factor when it comes to making full use of the available sitting days. Whether we can make full use of the physical space available depends on “system capacity” i.e. the sufficiency of judges, magistrates, legal advisors, advocates and wider system partners available to support them.

In the Crown Court for this financial year, we have allocated 111,250 sitting days -  the highest number of sitting days on record and over 5,000 more than the previous government funded for the last financial year. That is on top of an additional investment of up to £92 million per year for criminal legal aid solicitor fees and up to £34 million per year for criminal legal aid advocates. We have also secured record investment of up to £450 million per year for the courts system over the Spending Review period, alongside investing almost £150 million to modernise the court estate.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Lady Chief Justice continue discussions on allocation for 2025-26, aiming to give an unprecedented three-year certainty to the system. The Deputy Prime Minister has been clear that sitting days in the Crown and magistrates’ courts must continue to rise, and his ambition is to continue breaking records by the end of this Parliament.

The Crown Court operates from 84 buildings across England and Wales, with a core estate of over 500 courtrooms. Most are jury-enabled and suitable for trials, with the remainder supporting other judicial work, such as interlocutory hearings. The wider HMCTS estate—including magistrates’, civil, family, and tribunal rooms —can also be used for Crown Court business when required. As a result, the precise number of rooms available for Crown Court use at any given time is variable.

Temporary unavailability may arise due to maintenance, but also due to overspill from other trials, alternative judicial activities (such as, box work, civil, family and tribunals hearings, or coroner’s court work), or other legitimate uses (including meetings and video-link sessions). However, these factors do not prevent the Crown Courts from sitting at their funded allocation.

HMCTS’s priority is to ensure all funded sitting days are fully utilised each financial year through active courtroom management. Last year we sat 107,771 Crown court sitting days, representing over 99% of our allocation, and we remain on track to deliver all allocated days this year. While I acknowledge existing challenges in relation to the maintenance of the court estate, this Government is increasing investment to address this - £148.5 million was allocated to court and tribunal maintenance and project funding this financial year, £28.5 million more than the previous government funded last financial year.

Estate capacity is not the limiting factor when it comes to making full use of the available sitting days. Whether we can make full use of the physical space available depends on “system capacity” i.e. the sufficiency of judges, magistrates, legal advisors, advocates and wider system partners available to support them.

In the Crown Court for this financial year, we have allocated 111,250 sitting days -  the highest number of sitting days on record and over 5,000 more than the previous government funded for the last financial year. That is on top of an additional investment of up to £92 million per year for criminal legal aid solicitor fees and up to £34 million per year for criminal legal aid advocates. We have also secured record investment of up to £450 million per year for the courts system over the Spending Review period, alongside investing almost £150 million to modernise the court estate.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Lady Chief Justice continue discussions on allocation for 2025-26, aiming to give an unprecedented three-year certainty to the system. The Deputy Prime Minister has been clear that sitting days in the Crown and magistrates’ courts must continue to rise, and his ambition is to continue breaking records by the end of this Parliament.

The Crown Court operates from 84 buildings across England and Wales, with a core estate of over 500 courtrooms. Most are jury-enabled and suitable for trials, with the remainder supporting other judicial work, such as interlocutory hearings. The wider HMCTS estate—including magistrates’, civil, family, and tribunal rooms —can also be used for Crown Court business when required. As a result, the precise number of rooms available for Crown Court use at any given time is variable.

Temporary unavailability may arise due to maintenance, but also due to overspill from other trials, alternative judicial activities (such as, box work, civil, family and tribunals hearings, or coroner’s court work), or other legitimate uses (including meetings and video-link sessions). However, these factors do not prevent the Crown Courts from sitting at their funded allocation.

Ministers will introduce detailed proposals to Parliament as soon as parliamentary time allows.

The magistrates’ court is an effective and efficient jurisdiction – In the 12 months to September 2025 it disposed of 1,448,163 cases with an average timeliness (offence to case completion) for the most recent quarter of 191 days. The Government will ensure there are sufficient numbers of magistrates and will seek to ensure that there are sufficient magistrates’ court sitting days to meet additional demand placed on the system.

An impact assessment for the criminal court reforms will be published alongside legislation in the usual way. In 2024, triable either way offences in the magistrates’ courts completed more than four times faster than in the Crown Court.

The Government has already made significant additional investment in the criminal justice system – in record sitting days, court buildings and technology, and in legal professionals. We have secured record investment (up to £450 million per year for the courts system over the Spending Review period), and we are investing almost £150 million to modernise the court estate, including magistrates’ courts. Discussions about the allocation for 2025-26 between the Deputy Prime Minister and Lady Chief Justice continue and we will provide more detail in due course. Nevertheless, the Deputy Prime Minister has been clear that sitting days in the Crown Court and magistrates’ courts must continue to rise.

We are also accelerating our programme to recruit more new and diverse magistrates over the coming years and we continue to recruit high levels of legal advisers to ensure courts remain resilient.

Following reforms to the criminal courts, judicial review of criminal court decisions will be available in the same circumstances as it is currently.

We might expect to see an increase in the number of applications, given we expect to see more cases retained in the magistrates’ courts; however, the permission stage of a judicial review will mean that only those with proper grounds for a judicial review will progress.

The Government has already invested heavily in the criminal justice system – in record sitting days, court buildings and technology, and in legal professionals. We have secured record investment (up to £450 million per year for the courts system over the Spending Review period), and we are investing almost £150 million to modernise the court estate, including magistrates’ courts across the South East. Discussions about the allocation for 2025-26 between the Deputy Prime Minister and Lady Chief Justice continue and we will provide more detail in due course. Nevertheless, the Deputy Prime Minister has been clear that sitting days in the Crown Court and magistrates’ courts must continue to rise.

We are also accelerating our programme to recruit more new and diverse magistrates over the coming years and we continue to recruit high levels of legal advisers to ensure courts remain resilient.

The requested information is not centrally held. Where proceedings are before a court or tribunal in England or Wales, legal aid is available to individuals who qualify for services irrespective of their immigration status or method of entry into England and Wales. Method of entry to England or Wales is not relevant to eligibility for legal aid under the current rules.

Generally, applications for legal aid will be subject to an assessment of the merits of the case and the financial circumstances of the applicant.

An impact assessment will accompany our legislative measures, as is usual practice.

We intend to introduce legislation to mitigate the effect of the PACCAR judgment as soon as parliamentary time allows. The new legislation will clarify that Litigation Funding Agreements are not Damages Based Agreements. The Government recognises the critical role third-party litigation funding plays in access to justice and is committed to ensuring it works fairly for all.

We will outline next steps in due course.

An impact assessment will accompany our legislative measures, as is usual practice.

In developing his recommendations, Sir Brian Leveson and his expert advisers, including Professor David Ormerod, consulted with many external bodies involved in the Criminal Justice System including criminal legal organisations, charities, academics, and members of the judiciary.

The Review conducted a call for evidence on GOV.UK, to ensure it heard as many perspectives as possible. A full list of those who engaged with the Review is at Annex C of Sir Brian’s report.

In addition, when considering Sir Brian’s recommendations and developing our proposals, I have engaged regularly with stakeholders and relevant sectors over the last 12 months including meeting regularly representatives from the legal sector (Law Society, Bar Council, Criminal Bar Association), victims and victims representatives (the Victims Commissioner, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Rape Crisis), judiciary (Circuit leaders, Judicial leadership), magistracy (Magistrates’ Association, Magistrates’ Leadership Executive), non-governmental organisations (Appeal, JUSTICE, Transform Justice), court staff in criminal courts around the country (Wood Green, Snaresbrook) and similar international jurisdictions. For example, I met judges and visited courts in Canada, which uses types of judge-only trial.

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.

The information needed to provide a comprehensive answer to these questions could be provided only at disproportionate cost as central records are not kept in a way that they can be filtered by the required fields to obtain the information.

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.

The information needed to provide a comprehensive answer to these questions could be provided only at disproportionate cost as central records are not kept in a way that they can be filtered by the required fields to obtain the information.

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.

The information needed to provide a comprehensive answer to these questions could be provided only at disproportionate cost as central records are not kept in a way that they can be filtered by the required fields to obtain the information.

The requested information can be found in the table below:

Table: Number of prisoners aged 80 or over broken down by age at sentencing, 30th September 2025, England and Wales [note 1]

Source: Prison NOMIS

[note 1] The data presented in this table excludes prisoners awaiting sentencing that are held on remand.

Data quality - The figures in the table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Disclosure control - Where necessary, [c] has been used to suppress values of one or two to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient. This could include the secondary suppression of zero values.

Additional resources - Key statistics relating to offenders who are in prison or under Probation Service supervision can be found in the Offender management statistics quarterly (OMSQ) publication - Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

Crown copyright (produced by the Ministry of Justice)

The Government inherited a justice system in crisis, with a record and rising open caseload of nearly 80,000 criminal cases waiting to be heard in the Crown Court and too many victims waiting years for justice. That is why the Government commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to conduct an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts. On 2 December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a major programme of court reform to tackle these unacceptable delays and restore confidence in the criminal justice system. As part of our ongoing efforts to improve timeliness and efficiency in our criminal courts, we also asked Sir Brian to review court operations and make recommendations designed to boost court efficiency in Part 2 of his review. We are awaiting that report in the New Year and will look to act on its recommendations.

We are committed to working with our health partners to ensure that people in prison including those on remand have access to an equivalent standard, range and quality of health care in prisons to that available in the wider community to support their health outcomes. This is reflected in the National Partnership Agreement on Health and Social Care in England. This includes access to a range of treatments and interventions within prison as set out in the national service specification for mental health care in prisons.

For prisoners with severe mental health needs, the Mental Health Act (2025) received Royal Assent in December and contains several flagship reforms to improve access to mental health care and treatment, including, but not limited to, provisions to:

• Introduce a new statutory 28-day time limit for transfers from prison and other places of detention to hospital to reduce unnecessary delays experienced by prisoners who require mental health treatment.

• Stop courts temporarily detaining people with severe mental illness in prison as a ‘place of safety’ whilst awaiting a hospital bed for treatment or assessment under the Mental Health Act; and

• End the use of remand for own protection under the Bail Act where the court’s sole concern is the defendant’s mental health.

We will implement these reforms as soon as it is safe to do so.

The Sentencing Bill, currently being considered before parliament, introduces a package of amendments to the Bail Act (1976), which, alongside the presumption to suspend short sentences of 12 months or less, will help to address the unsustainable growth in the prison remand population.

Data on the prison population is published as part of the Department’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) release, with the latest publication including prison population data as at 30 September 2025.

The requested information (based on the prison population as at 1 December 2025) cannot be provided at the current time because it would provide an early indication of the data underpinning the next iteration of these Accredited Official Statistics, which will be published on 29 January 2026

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.

Table 1: Mean Tariff Length for Offenders Receiving a Life Sentence, by Age at Sentencing and Year of Sentence

Table 2: Median Tariff Length for Offenders Receiving a Life Sentence, by Age at Sentencing and Year of Sentence

Table notes:

1. *Data for 2025 are up to 30 September 2025.

2. Figures are subject to change as more information about tariff becomes available.

3. Tariff length is the time between date of sentencing and tariff expiry date, and does not take into account any time served on remand.

4. Figures do not include offenders who received a Whole Life Order.

Data sources and quality

The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Source: Public Protection Unit Database

The requested information can be found in the table below.

Table: Prisoners serving an Extended Determinate Sentence by sentence length, as at 30 September 2025, England and Wales [note 1][note 2]

[note 1] Figures based on Extended Determinate Sentenced prisoners with a recorded sentence length.

[note 2] Judicially Imposed Sentence lengths as recorded on prison-NOMIS

Data quality - The figures in the table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Disclosure control - Where necessary, [c] has been used to suppress values of one or two to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient. This could include the secondary suppression of zero values.

Additional resources - Key statistics relating to offenders who are in prison or under Probation Service supervision can be found in the Offender management statistics quarterly (OMSQ) publication - Link to 'OMSQ publication' (opens in a new window).

Crown copyright (produced by the Ministry of Justice)

Applications for Probate can be delayed where more information is needed from the applicant, a caveat is in place or where cases are more complex. HM Courts & Tribunals Service is investing in more staff, alongside system and process improvements to improve timeliness and further build capability for the more complex cases, which include cases involving a lost will.

The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness in our regular quarterly family court statistics bulletin: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.

Applications for Probate can be delayed where more information is needed from the applicant, a caveat is in place or where cases are more complex. HM Courts & Tribunals Service is investing in more staff, alongside system and process improvements to improve timeliness and further build capability for the more complex cases, which include cases involving a lost will.

The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness in our regular quarterly family court statistics bulletin: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.

The Government does not recognise the concept of “parental alienation” syndrome and does not believe it is capable of diagnosis.

The Family Justice Council has published guidance on “responding to a child’s unexplained reluctance, resistance or refusal to spend time with a parent and allegations of alienating behaviour”. The guidance provides a clear framework for assessing whether alienating behaviours are present. The guidance is clear that where the court finds that domestic abuse has occurred then the child’s rejection of the parent is appropriate and justified.

Cafcass practitioners receive mandatory training on alienating behaviours. Cafcass’ training programme includes training on the domestic abuse practice policy (introduced in 2024) and on indicators of understanding why a child does not want to spend family time with a parent guide, including due to alienating behaviours. The training policy and guide make clear that the first step in assessing the reasons for a child not wanting to see a parent is to consider whether domestic abuse is a factor so that Cafcass practitioners can explore the pattern of behaviours in the safest context.

We recognise the impact that family court proceedings can have on parents, particularly victims of domestic abuse, and are committed to long-term reform of the family court to better support users.

The family court has a range of powers to support and protect victims, including prohibiting in-person cross examination of survivors by alleged abusers and automatically providing special measures, such as the ability to provide evidence behind a screen.

We have redesigned the information and guidance for separating families on GOV.UK, making it more user-friendly through extensive user-tested changes. We are also testing a triage tool which will support users to access information specific to their personal circumstances, alongside signposting to relevant support and advice services.

Legal aid is available for parents in certain public and private family law matters subject to the relevant means and merits tests. Beyond legal aid, over £6 million will be provided in 2025–26 to 60 organisations, including Citizens Advice, Law Centres and AdviceNow, to expand free legal information and early support. The Help with Fees scheme ensures that court fees do not prevent parents accessing proceedings.

The Government has not carried out a specific assessment of the levels of mental health issues among parents and young fathers during family court proceedings. However, the Government is aware of the impact involvement in family court proceedings can have on the mental health of both the parents and children involved. and encourages those affected to seek appropriate support from local NHS and voluntary services.

In addition, the charity Support Through Court offers practical, procedural and emotional support to all parents facing court without legal representation. It operates across England and Wales and also offers a national helpline.

We recognise the impact that family court proceedings can have on parents, particularly victims of domestic abuse, and are committed to long-term reform of the family court to better support users.

The family court has a range of powers to support and protect victims, including prohibiting in-person cross examination of survivors by alleged abusers and automatically providing special measures, such as the ability to provide evidence behind a screen.

We have redesigned the information and guidance for separating families on GOV.UK, making it more user-friendly through extensive user-tested changes. We are also testing a triage tool which will support users to access information specific to their personal circumstances, alongside signposting to relevant support and advice services.

Legal aid is available for parents in certain public and private family law matters subject to the relevant means and merits tests. Beyond legal aid, over £6 million will be provided in 2025–26 to 60 organisations, including Citizens Advice, Law Centres and AdviceNow, to expand free legal information and early support. The Help with Fees scheme ensures that court fees do not prevent parents accessing proceedings.

The Government has not carried out a specific assessment of the levels of mental health issues among parents and young fathers during family court proceedings. However, the Government is aware of the impact involvement in family court proceedings can have on the mental health of both the parents and children involved. and encourages those affected to seek appropriate support from local NHS and voluntary services.

In addition, the charity Support Through Court offers practical, procedural and emotional support to all parents facing court without legal representation. It operates across England and Wales and also offers a national helpline.

Information on the number of civil servants employed on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the accredited official statistics release Public Sector Employment, UK: September 2025. This can be accessed at:

(Source: ONS Public Sector Employment reference tables – Table 8 HC, September 2025 edition; MoJ Workforce MI, September 2025)

Public sector employment - Office for National Statistics

As at September 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics Public Sector Employment statistics (Table 8 HC), and published 16 December 2025, 455 civil servants in the Ministry of Justice were on temporary or casual contracts, representing approximately 0.5% of the Department’s civil service headcount (total 96,715).

Ministry of Justice Civil Service Headcount – September 2025

Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Ministry of Justice’s Annual Report and Accounts. The latest report for FY 2024/25 can be found at:
Ministry of Justice – Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25

(See Annex D: Off-payroll engagements, page 303).

For clarity, consultants are not civil servants and are therefore not included in civil service headcount figures. The latest Ministry of Justice, Workforce Management Information (June 2025), publishes total cost of contractors, which is part of the department’s transparency data and can be accessed at:
MoJ_headcount_and_payroll_data_for_June_2025_revised.ods

In support of the Sentencing Bill, the Ministry of Justice will significantly expand the use of electronic monitoring as a vital tool for probation to ensure offenders are managed safely in the community.

This expansion builds on the Department’s long-standing commitment to building the evidence base for electronic monitoring. Our evaluations, alongside external research commissioned by the Department, have provided clear evidence that targeted electronic monitoring conditions can reduce reoffending and support reintegration by providing an effective alternative to custody. A recent study has found that curfew tags reduce reoffending by 20% when used as part of a community sentence. Further to this, our Acquisitive Crime pilot evaluation shows that burglars, robbers, and thieves given a constant whereabouts monitoring condition with a GPS tag were around 20% less likely to reoffend while on the tag.

The safety and wellbeing of those held in our prisons is of vital importance. Healthcare in prisons is the responsibility of the NHS: Prison Service staff work with healthcare partners to ensure that those held in prison have access to the same quality and range of services as the general public receives from the NHS, as required by the Prison Rules 1999.

His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has well-established and effective procedures in place for managing prisoners who refuse food, and these are being followed in the case of those of the named prisoners who are currently refusing food, with appropriate medical assessment and support in place.

When a prisoner refuses food, prison staff will act immediately in accordance with the Prison Safety Policy Framework. This includes notifying healthcare professionals and conducting regular welfare checks. The Framework also provides for close monitoring of the person’s health by healthcare staff. Additionally, prison chaplaincy teams are available to provide pastoral care.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on convictions and sentencing information for sexual offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

However, it is not possibly to identify whether the offender was a foreign national. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would incur disproportionate costs.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on convictions and sentencing information for sexual offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

However, it is not possibly to identify whether the offender was a foreign national. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would incur disproportionate costs.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on convictions and sentencing information for sexual offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

However, it is not possibly to identify whether the offender was a foreign national. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would incur disproportionate costs.