Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when her Department plans to introduce the proposed Hillsborough Law, including a legal duty of candour for public servants.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Our thoughts remain with those affected by the Hillsborough disaster and we will get them the justice they deserve. Having consulted with these groups over the past few weeks, we believe more time is needed to draft the best version of a Hillsborough Law.

We remain fully committed to bringing in this legislation, which will include a legal duty of candour for public servants and criminal sanctions for those who refuse to comply. Our engagement with victims, families and survivors is essential to getting this right for them, and work with them will only increase in the weeks ahead.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede on 27 March (HL5807), what are the names of the companies where the UK taxpayer is the only shareholder which brought a private prosecution using common law powers preserved under section 6(1) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 in 2024.

Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Ministry of Justice does not collate or record data on individual private prosecutors, although some prosecutors may publish their own data separately. Therefore, it is not possible to provide data on the number of companies where the UK taxpayer is the only shareholder that have brought a private prosecution in 2024.

This Government considers that it is important that more information about private prosecutors is available to improve confidence in the criminal justice system. This is why we have launched a public consultation on options to improve the oversight, regulation, and transparency of private prosecutors in the criminal justice system, which closes on 8 May. The consultation seeks respondents’ views on improvements to the available data on private prosecutors and the prosecutions they bring.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to repeal section 2(4) of the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948.

Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Government does not currently plan to review or repeal section 2(4) of the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948. The Department of Health and Social Care recognise that this is an important issue, and the Department is looking at the drivers of cost in clinical negligence cases.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Timpson on 29 July 2024 (HL68), when they intend to launch the review of the sentencing framework mentioned in the Answer, and what attention they will give to aligning the licence conditions for those subject to (1) 'two-strike' life sentences, and (2) imprisonment for public protection sentences.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government launched an Independent Review of Sentencing in October 2024, chaired by former Lord Chancellor David Gauke, to review the sentencing framework to ensure we are never again forced to rely on the emergency release of prisoners. The Review is considering options following three core principles: sentences must punish offenders and protect the public; sentences should encourage prisoners to turn their backs on a life of crime; and we must make greater use of punishment outside of prison. On 18 February 2025, the Review published Part 1 of its report, which sets out the history and trends in sentencing that contributed to the pressures on our prisons. The review has been asked to consider the framework around longer sentences, including life sentences.

However, the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence is not within the scope of the review. I look forward to seeing the Review’s recommendations when it reports in the Spring.

The mandatory life sentence for a second serious offence, also known as the ‘two-strikes’ life sentence, was introduced in 1997, and meant that judges had to impose a life sentence on anyone convicted of a second specified offence, unless there were exceptional circumstances. As with other types of life sentence, offenders under the two-strikes life sentence are given a minimum term, and then, if they are released by the Parole Board, they will be subject to licence conditions for the rest of their life.

The IPP sentence was an indeterminate sentence in use from 2005 to 2012. It was intended as a means of managing high-risk prisoners who did not meet the criteria for a life sentence. An IPP sentence was imposed where an offender was convicted of a serious specified violent or sexual offence, committed on or after the 4 April 2005, for which the penalty was 10 years or more and where, in the Court’s opinion, the offender posed a risk of harm to the public.

Unlike the IPP sentence, where the licence can be terminated either by the Parole Board at the end of the qualifying period, or after a further two years in the community on licence, the ‘two-strike’ sentence is a life sentence and has an indefinite licence period. There is no provision for a life sentence to be terminated and therefore, the IPP measures relating to licence termination are not applicable to ‘two-strike’ life sentence offenders.

As with all life sentenced prisoners, HM Prison and Probation Service supports those serving ‘two-strikes’ life sentences to reduce their risk to meet the Parole Board’s statutory release test when they become eligible for release. If released, they remain on life licence. The Government has no plans to change licence conditions for life sentences.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42849 on the Employment Tribunals Service, if she will make an estimate of the number sitting days that were lost in employment tribunals due to (a) judicial and (b) administrative staff shortages in the last 12 months.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 3 April 2025 to Question 42849. Information on the number of employment tribunal sitting days lost specifically to judicial and staff shortages, as opposed to some other cause, is not held by the Department.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Timpson on 9 April (HL6405), whether they have taken steps to assess the potential for reducing costs and increasing productivity from retaining Gov Facilities Services Limited in-house.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Government Facility Services Limited was created in 2018 as a government company to ensure continuity of facilities management services to prisons in the South and East of England following the collapse of the previous contracted supplier, Carillion. This was always planned to be a transient organisation whilst the Department decided on how the Prison and Probation estate would be maintained in the future.

A 2023 assessment conducted in partnership with the Cabinet Office determined that an insourced solution was not the preferred option for future prison maintenance services. The assessment was conducted in line with Cabinet Office guidance and was consistent with the options appraisal approach prescribed by HM Treasury Green Book. Financial analysis determined that an outsourced option would be more cost effective and deliver the best value for money. The value and performance of the Department’s service providers are subject to ongoing contract management and are reviewed and changed, where appropriate, to align with the business requirements.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, published on 3 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of incorporating (a) economic, (b) social and (c) cultural rights into domestic law.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

We have made no such assessment. United Nations human rights treaties do not require States to incorporate them into domestic law, and we are confident that we comply fully with our UN treaty obligations.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the condition of (a) young offenders institutions and (b) education provision in these institutions.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

We recognise that current performance in our public sector young offender institutions (YOIs) is not where we need it to be. This puts staff under pressure and affects the quality of regime, including education opportunities, that we can offer children and young people.

To drive performance improvements, we have developed roadmaps to effective practice which will focus on outcomes in areas such as safety, behaviour management support and education. Where required, action is being taken under the education contracts to require providers to improve performance, but this is a shared challenge, in which the maintenance of good order and discipline in establishments plays a key part.

The Youth Custody Service (YCS) is working closely with education providers in the community, in particular those making provision for children who have experienced school exclusion, children with special educational needs and young people who have previously experienced, or are at risk of, being unemployed without involvement in education or training. These partnerships will be crucial to developing practice in our YOIs, but also in offering some continuity with children’s education on release.

Work is under way to apply new learning frameworks to the current provision. This will create a wider range of pathways for children, and a roadmap will be used to promote these improvements.

I recently met with education providers and the YCS, including governors, to explore the barriers and plans for improvement. Effective engagement with individual children and young people will make a huge difference in improving safety and achieving more positive outcomes for them on release.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what proportion of cases a pre-sentence report was requested in each year since 2013.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Probation Service is responsible for producing Pre-Sentence Reports (PSRs) where they have been requested by the Court. The PSR assesses the offender’s behaviour, the risk they pose, and recommends sentencing options tailored to the individual. The report can suggest community sentences and specific requirements like treatment programmes. Ultimately, the PSR provides recommendations to the Court, but the final decision rests with the judge.

The Lord Chancellor has been clear that she wishes to see the widest possible use of pre-sentencing reports and in recent months she has taken steps to ensure that the probation service has more time for vital work such as this.

We cannot provide the proportion of cases where a pre-sentence report was requested in each year since 2013 as obtaining this information would incur disproportionate costs. However, we can provide the number of pre-sentence reports prepared by the Probation Service and presented to the criminal courts in England and Wales.

Note, these figures are published every April in Table 6.24 of the Offender Management Statistics quarterly bulletin. The latest figures are available within Probation: 2023 at Offender management statistics quarterly: October to December 2023 - GOV.UK. Figures for 2024 will be published on 24 April 2025.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to improve (a) awareness and (b) understanding of (i) gambling-related suicide and (ii) other gambling-related harm at all levels of the justice system.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

In the Ministry of Justice, general training on wellbeing and resilience is available to all Civil Servants and we provide guidance to employees on suicide and self-harm. In previous Mental Health Awareness Weeks, specific events on ‘gambling addiction and mental health’ were available to all staff.

Within His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), National Debt Awareness week was observed in 2024, with several live events concerning gambling-related harms. Further materials such as the "Reach Out Save Lives" initiative, and bite-sized learning modules like the ‘HMPPS Problem Gambling: Prevalence and Practice’ course, are available to all staff. There is also the ‘Addiction to Gambling long-read’ which collates peer-reviewed literature on the matter and serves as operational guidance on working with those in prison and probation who experience gambling-related harms.

Support for prisoners who are experiencing gambling-related harm is provided by the NHS.

As an organisation, we take an evidence-based approach to ensure the Ministry of Justice is able to provide targeted support to respond to environmental factors. At this time, we are not planning any specific events training for the workforce related to gambling-related harm.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children were convicted of (a) murder and (b) manslaughter by (i) age, (ii) biological sex, (iii) ethnicity, (iv) country of birth, (v) care experience, (vi) history of previous criminal offences, (vii) whether they lived with both parents, (viii) county lived in at time of offence and (ix) county in which the offence took place in each of the last ten years.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The number of children that were convicted of murder and manslaughter by age, biological sex and ethnicity can be found in the criminal justice statistics: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2024 - GOV.UK.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of children convicted of murder and manslaughter by country of birth, care experience, whether they lived with both parents, country lived at time of offence and county in which the offence took place in each of the last ten years. The information requested on children convicted of murder and manslaughter by history of previous criminal offences is held by the Department but could only be obtained at disproportionate cost

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help improve the experiences of rape and sexual assault victims in the criminal justice system.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Government was elected with a landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade. Ministers from a wide range of relevant Government departments regularly meet to ensure we are using all available levers to achieve this, and we will publish our cross-government strategy this summer.

We are already taking action to improve the experiences of victims of domestic and sexual abuse by:

• Launching Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) in selected areas to provide more protection for victims;
• Introducing specialist rape and sexual offence teams in every police force, and domestic abuse experts in 999 rooms;
• Introducing free Independent Legal Advisers for victims of adult rape, so that victims better understand their legal rights; and
• Ensuring every CPS area has at least one dedicated Victim Liaison Officer in its RASSO unit, to improve victim communications.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to support survivors of domestic abuse and violence against women through the criminal justice system.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Government was elected with a landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in the next decade. Ministers from a wide range of relevant Government departments regularly meet to ensure we are using all available levers to achieve this, and we will publish our cross-government strategy this summer.

We are already taking action to improve the experiences of victims of domestic and sexual abuse by:

• Launching Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) in selected areas to provide more protection for victims;
• Introducing specialist rape and sexual offence teams in every police force, and domestic abuse experts in 999 rooms;
• Introducing free Independent Legal Advisers for victims of adult rape, so that victims better understand their legal rights; and
• Ensuring every CPS area has at least one dedicated Victim Liaison Officer in its RASSO unit, to improve victim communications.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she plans to take to tackle the backlog of court cases involving violence against women and girls.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The judiciary prioritises cases involving vulnerable victims and witnesses, which includes victims of violence against women and girls.

We have increased Crown Court funding, bringing courts to their highest capacity in almost a decade.

We look forward to Sir Brian Leveson’s recommendations on once in a generation court reform, due in late Spring.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many immigration tribunal cases have been adjourned more than once in the last year; and for what reasons.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not held centrally.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the average waiting time for an immigration appeal to be heard.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

General information on average waiting times for an immigration appeal in the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2024/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2024.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April to Question 42441 on the Employment Tribunals Service, what discussions she has had with HM Courts & Tribunals Service on collecting aggregate data on the time taken to resolve individual employment tribunal cases.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. These discussions are aimed at ensuring the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions. Publication of Employment Tribunal Timeliness information ceased under the previous Government from April 2021 when the jurisdiction moved to an interim database with only limited management information available. Between July 2022 and July 2024, Employment Tribunals have gradually transitioned to a new case management system as part of the Reform project and timeliness data for single cases only from this system was published for the first time in March 2025 - www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics. It is expected that timeliness and jurisdictional data will be available for single cases held on the reformed platform later in the year.

It is not possible to produce timeliness or jurisdictional data for the legacy case management system, therefore the data we can currently provide is limited. Work is currently ongoing to transition the remaining legacy caseload to the new case management system as part of the HMCTS data strategy to enable more comprehensive data to be produced. That is expected to be available later this year.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if her Department will develop a cross-Departmental advice sector strategy to ensure accessible social welfare advice across (a) health, (b) housing, (c) justice and (d) social care.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We have established the Legal Support Strategy Delivery Group, comprised of key stakeholders from across the advice sector and academia to jointly develop and implement a long-term legal support strategy. The strategy aims to deliver a more sustainable and effective legal support system for social welfare issues covering health inequalities, housing and social care, so people can resolve their legal problems at an early stage. As part of this work, we will continue to engage strategically with other government departments to drive improvements in the cross-government commissioning, funding and evaluation of advice services.

We are also providing over £6 million of grant funding from April 2025 to March 2026 to identify what works best in the delivery and provision of legal support and advice for people with social welfare legal problems.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of restricting offences triable either way to summary trial except for the sentencing process.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Last November, we extended magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 to 12 months.

This change is expected to save Crown Court time and help deliver the swifter justice that victims deserve.

The Independent Review of the Criminal Courts is considering measures to ensure cases are dealt with more proportionately, including triable either-way offences.

I do not want to pre-empt the recommendations of the Review but I welcome my Honourable Friend’s interest in this topic.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have more than one active appeal within the immigration tribunal system.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not held centrally. However, it should be noted that the case management powers of the Tribunal permit the joining together of appeals brought by an individual. The Tribunal will normally identify and link cases together to ensure effective use of time and final resolution of all matters, in one hearing.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the crown court backlog.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are funding a record allocation of Crown Court sitting days to deliver swifter justice for victims – 110,000 sitting days this year, 4,000 higher than the last Government.

We have launched an independent review into the efficiency of the criminal courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson, to deliver once-in-a-generation reform.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April to Question 42850 on Employment Tribunals Service: Standards, what assessment her Department has made of the level of staffing of (a) judges and (b) other people necessary to cut delays and ensure timely access to justice for all.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. The issue of staffing requirements and the role of case coordinators across all jurisdictions form part of those discussions.

Future staffing requirements at the Employment Tribunal will be subject to the outcome of the Spending Review. Judicial recruitment is undertaken to replace known leavers, and also takes into consideration current pressures and assumed future workloads. The transition to the new reformed platform will help to improve efficiency and productivity.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42439 on the Employment Tribunals Service, what discussions she has had with HM Courts & Tribunals Service on collecting data on the number of Employment Tribunal cases outstanding aggregated by the duration of time they have been pending.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. These discussions are part of ongoing engagement to ensure the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions. Work is currently ongoing to transition the remaining legacy caseload to the new case management system as part of the HMCTS data strategy to enable more comprehensive data to be produced.

That is expected to be available later this year.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions (a) she and (b) Ministers in her Department have had with the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service on the Employment Tribunals Service since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunals. I also have regular meetings with other senior officials in the Ministry of Justice on the operation of the Employment Tribunals.

These discussions are part of ongoing engagement to ensure the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to promote the use of restorative justice.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Restorative justice can improve victim satisfaction and reduce reoffending. Victims must be informed about restorative justice under the Victims’ Code.

We provide grant funding to Police and Crime Commissioners for victim support services, including restorative justice.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people (a) on probation and (b) engaging with probation services have died since 2010; and how many of these deaths cited suicide as the official cause of death.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The number of people who died while under probation supervision in the community is published annually in Table 1 of the ‘Deaths of offenders in the community’ statistical bulletin. The latest release, which includes data from April 2010 up to March 2024, is available at the following link: Deaths of offenders in the community, annual update to March 2024 - GOV.UK.

Each death is categorised based on its apparent cause, as reported by the probation provider to HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). It is important to note that this classification system provides a provisional categorisation for administrative and statistical purposes and has not been independently verified. The official cause of death is determined by the coroner. Consequently, while the apparent cause of death in this bulletin reflects the classification made at the time of reporting, it may not reflect the official cause of death as determined by the coroner.

The category of ‘suicide’ is not used in the published statistics because it is not always clear whether a self-inflicted death is intentional or not. Instead, the broader category of ‘self-inflicted’ deaths is used. In years prior to April 2022, this category includes all self-inflicted deaths, irrespective of intent (intentional, unintentional, and undetermined intent). From April 2022, it includes only intentional self-inflicted deaths and deaths where intent is undetermined.

The number of people engaging with probation services that have died since 2010 could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to introduce a panel of independent experts to review IPP cases to advise on resentencing.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

It is right that IPP Sentences were abolished.

The Government is determined to make progress towards safe and sustainable releases for those serving the IPP sentence, but not in a way that undermines public protection. Public protection will always be the top priority.

Resentencing through legislation to give every IPP prisoner a definite release date and post-release licence would result in offenders who are in custody being released irrespective of their remaining risk. This would be the case even where the independent Parole Board had determined, in many cases repeatedly, that they are too dangerous to be released. This would pose an unacceptable level of risk to victims and the public. For that reason, we are firmly of the view that those serving the IPP sentence in prison must satisfy the statutory release test before they are released.

The Justice Committee and various organisations have considered resentencing. None have identified an approach that would not involve too great a risk to the public. The Government also does not wish to give false hope to those serving the sentence by establishing an expert panel.

We do not therefore intend to undertake a resentencing exercise or set up an expert panel to advise on resentencing.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released from Nottinghamshire prisons as part of the early release scheme since July 2024.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

This Government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, with our prisons on the brink of collapse. We took the necessary action to prevent the complete breakdown in law and order that we were facing when we were elected, by introducing the SDS40 scheme. Unlike the previous Government’s disastrous ECSL scheme, SDS40 has exclusions for domestic abuse related offences and sought to give probation as much time as possible to prepare for releases.

SDS40 applies to all prisons in England and Wales and data on early prison releases from Nottinghamshire prisons forms a subset of prison releases data which is intended for future publication. In accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, we may not give any early indication of the contents of this statistical report.

On 07 November, the Ministry of Justice published transparency data on how many offenders were released on the first days of Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 of SDS40 (1,889 prisoners on the first day of Tranche 1, and 1,223 prisoners on the first day of Tranche 2).

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to establish further Intensive Supervision Courts.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

This Government is committed to expanding the use of robust community alternatives to custody, keeping offenders in the community and offering the right package of support to rehabilitate offenders and stop the revolving door of the justice system. The Independent Sentencing Review, announced by the Lord Chancellor, is due to publish its recommendations on sentencing reform in the Spring.

Any future expansion of the pilot is subject to the upcoming Spending Review process. There must also be consideration of available evidence, alongside an assessment of existing capacity within the courts and probation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department plans to take to improve training across all levels of the justice system on gambling-related harm.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Ministry of Justice takes a person-centric approach to workplace wellbeing. Our support offer to individuals is delivered though the employee assistance programme, occupational health, staff networks and related policies. There have been a range of events and operational guidance made available to staff on gambling-related harms. In previous Mental Health Awareness Weeks, specific events on ‘gambling addiction and mental health’ were available to all staff.

Within His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), National Debt Awareness week was observed in 2024, with several live events concerning gambling-related harms. Further materials such as the "Reach Out Save Lives" initiative, and bite-sized learning modules like the ‘HMPPS Problem Gambling: Prevalence and Practice’ course, are available to all staff. There is also the ‘Addiction to Gambling long-read’ which collates peer-reviewed literature on the matter and serves as operational guidance on working with those in prison and probation who experience gambling-related harms.

As an organisation, we take an evidence-based approach to ensure the Ministry of Justice is able to provide targeted support to respond to environmental factors. At this time, we are not planning any specific events training for the workforce related to gambling-related harm.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Intensive Supervision Courts.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

An interim process evaluation report, published in January 2025, indicates promising results on the effectiveness of ISCs: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6785311af029f40e50881712/process-evaluation-intensive-supervision-courts-pilot-interim-report.pdf.

Offenders tested negatively for drug use two-thirds of the time and breach rates were low. The Ministry of Justice continues to be committed to an ongoing evaluation of the pilot, including a final process evaluation report to be published later this year, followed by impact and economic evaluations after the pilot concludes. These evaluations will help us understand the programme's effectiveness in reducing reoffending, improving offender outcomes and cost effectiveness.

We urge the Government to automatically grant Deputyship to parents of children with disabilities once they reach adulthood. We think this change would eliminate complex legal processes, ensuring continued care, while reducing financial and emotional burdens on families.

Despite leaving the EU, many laws of EU origin remain in UK legislation, referred to as assimilated law. We call for the repeal or replacement of this legislation. We believe this will restore full legal independence and ensure Brexit is fully delivered.

We want the Government to automatically remove parental responsibility from convicted perpetrators of domestic violence to ensure the safety of children and victims of domestic violence. I think this would mean children and victims can live freely, not in fear of continually being dragged to court.

I ask that the law be changed to ensure that abusive ex-spouses are banned from receiving any rights to financial assets in financial settlements in divorce, especially when there is clear evidence of repeated abuse.

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