Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners with at least one life sentence have been granted (a) supervised, and (b) unsupervised Release on Temporary Licence in each year since 2020, broken down by offence.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) for prisoners serving life sentences is subject to particularly stringent risk assessment and senior decision making, and is granted only in limited circumstances, with public protection as the paramount consideration.
Data on prisoners serving life sentences who are released on ROTL are published regularly in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly, which include information on the number of individuals serving life sentences released on ROTL, by year: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly.
Data on supervised ROTL is not included within centrally collated statistical data or published ROTL figures. As a result, a breakdown of life sentence prisoners released on ROTL by supervised / unsupervised ROTL and offence would only be possible to obtain at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether local police forces will be given additional (a) officers, (b) funding, and (c) logistical support when (i) a new prison opens and (ii) a new prison expansion is completed in their area.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice works closely with other government departments and local services, including emergency services, throughout all phases of new prison builds and expansions.
Decisions regarding the allocation of police resources is a matter for Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners, or their equivalents. They are best placed to make these decisions based on their knowledge of local need, experience, and in line with their existing budget.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to support the provision of the installation of additional (a) CCTV and (b) speed cameras in areas where (i) new prisons open and (ii) new prison expansions are completed.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
New prisons are designed with robust security measures, including full CCTV coverage. Expansion teams work with existing prisons to ensure full CCTV coverage of new buildings and associated spaces.
There are no plans for the Ministry of Justice to expand the provision of speed cameras near new prison or expansion sites; the installation and management of speed cameras is a matter for the relevant local authorities and the police.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with local police forces for areas where new prison spaces are being planned.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice works closely with emergency services throughout the planning, construction and mobilisation phases of all new prison builds and expansions.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what standards and safeguards apply to the treatment of prisoners in British Overseas Territories; and what assessment he has made of whether those standards are equivalent to those applied to prisoners in the UK.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Prisons in the Overseas Territories are subject to the local laws and constitutions of each Territory. The Ministry of Justice works with the Overseas Territories to help align the treatment of prisoners with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules).
The standards the Overseas Territories operate under are not directly equivalent to those applied to the UK because HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP), England and Wales has no formal jurisdiction in the Overseas Territories and the UK is a signatory to relevant international obligations, such as the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture, which the Overseas Territories are not.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2026 to Question 123532, when his Department expects to equip up to 10,000 staff with protective body armour.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
HM Prison & Probation Service is committed to equipping up to 10,000 staff with protective body armour by March 2027. Work is continuing to support delivery against this commitment, ensuring it is implemented in a controlled and proportionate manner, with appropriate governance and oversight in place.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total annual cost of administering the Community Payback scheme was in each of the last five years; and what the average cost per (a) sentence and (b) completed hour of unpaid work was in each of those years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Financial Year | Total Community Payback Unpaid Work Spend (£) |
2021/22 | £47,340,492 |
2022/23 | £77,175,893 |
2023/24 | £89,614,915 |
2024/25 | £96,014,945 |
In terms of what the total cost covers, it is things such as staffing costs, fleet (vans) and tools.
We do not hold information on average cost per sentence in the format requested.
The average cost per hour of Unpaid Work credited was £17.15 (2022/23), £19.14 (2023/24) and £21.24 (2024/25). Data are not provided for the performance year 2021/22 as this is only a partial year of data following the reunification of the Probation Service.
The average cost per hour credited is calculated by dividing the total spend by the number of hours credited in each year.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of face-to-face civil legal aid provision for the residents of Norwich South constituency; when the provision was last reviewed; and what steps his Department is taking to improve local access to justice.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Legal aid is a vital part of the justice system and underpins our plans to build a justice system that works fairly for all parties.
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) continuously assesses the available supply of legal aid services throughout England and Wales across all categories of law. Details about volumes of contracted legal aid providers are published in the LAA’s official statistics (Tables 9.1–9.9). These figures help the LAA monitor the availability of services. Additionally, the LAA’s network of regional contract managers in England and Wales provide intelligence-led information regarding provision of legal aid based on contact with legal aid service providers. The LAA takes operational action, where it can, to respond to market pressures that may arise.
For civil contracts, the LAA commissions legal aid services across larger geographic areas called procurement areas, rather than by local authority or parliamentary constituency. The relevant procurement area serving the Norwich South constituency varies depending on the type of civil law.
Constituents in Norwich South can access face to face services across all civil categories of law for which legal aid is available. All procurement areas serving Norwich South exceed the minimum required number of legal aid providers. The LAA is satisfied there is adequate provision of legal aid services in Norwich South.
We are committed to sustaining the long-term future of the legal aid sector and ensuring access to justice. That is why we are uplifting immigration and housing legal aid fees, areas identified by the Review of Civil Legal Aid as facing particularly acute challenges. This is a significant investment of £20 million a year once fully implemented – the first major increase since 1996.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of jurors completed jury service lasting (a) one week or less from their first day of service, (b) more than one week but not more than two weeks, (c) more than two weeks but not more than three weeks, (d) more than three weeks but not more than four weeks, (e) more than four weeks but not more than five weeks, (f) more than five weeks but not more than six weeks, and (g) more than six weeks in the last two years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
When jurors are summoned, they are advised that Jury service usually lasts up to 10 working days, although some trials may extend beyond this period and jurors will be advised of this in advance. Jurors may also sit on more than one case during their service.
Proportion of Jurors by Jury Service Duration (Weeks) | |||
Period | Jan 2024 – Dec 2025 | Jan 2024 – Dec 2025 (%) | |
One week or less | 210,930 | 53.1% | |
Between 1 and 2 weeks | 155,178 | 39.1% | |
Between 2 and 3 weeks | 18,806 | 4.7% | |
Between 3 and 4 weeks | 5,061 | 1.3% | |
Between 4 and 5 weeks | 2,841 | 0.7% | |
Between 5 and 6 weeks | 1,667 | 0.4% | |
More than 6 weeks | 2,773 | 0.7% | |
Total | 397,256 | 100.0% | |
Source: HMCTS management information - Data extracted via Juror 16/4/2026 Notes:
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Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours of unpaid work were (a) sentenced and (b) credited in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Between July 2021 and June 2025, a total of 24,341,125 hours of unpaid work were sentenced in England and Wales. In the same period, 17,614,065 hours of unpaid work were credited in England and Wales.
By Performance Year | Hours of unpaid work sentenced | Hours of unpaid work credited |
July 2021 to March 2022* | 4,351,655 | 2,769,930 |
April 2022 to March 2023 | 5,943,455 | 4,499,655 |
April 2023 to March 2024 | 6,108,405 | 4,683,290 |
April 2024 to March 2025 | 6,273,290 | 4,520,280 |
April 2025 to June 2025* | 1,664,320 | 1,140,910 |
Periods marked with an asterisk (*) indicate incomplete performance years.
Hours sentenced are the number of hours that the offender is required to work as part of the sentence of the court.
Upon attendance of the unpaid work session, the time the offender spends working will be credited towards the number of hours they have been ordered to complete. This includes where a person attends a session and subsequently fails to comply with instructions or is sent home due to poor behaviour, or where service issues during the day cause a session to be cancelled.
Data from April 2022 to June 2025 sourced from the latest published statistics on unpaid work. A link can be found here - Unpaid work management information, update to June 2025 - GOV.UK
Data from July 2021 to March 2022 sourced from nDelius on 13/04/2026. While these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.
Data from the biannual Unpaid Work publication are rounded to the nearest five hours worked for data suppression purposes and yearly totals are calculated on the rounded values of each quarter. To be consistent with the publication, the same principle has been applied to data between July 2021 and March 2022.
The next publication is due on 14 May 2026.
Data are provided from July 2021, the month following the reunification of the Probation Service.