Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the National Offender Management Service is still providing prison officer training under the Women Awareness Staff Programme.
Answered by Earl of Courtown - Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Staff who work within women’s prisons are able to undertake two additional training programmes, ‘Women Awareness Staff Programme’ and ‘Sex Workers in Custody and the Community’.
Additionally, nearly 2,000 staff in women’s prisons and providers of community services in England and Scotland have received training on developing ‘trauma informed’ practice, which entails understanding and responding to behaviours arising from a history of trauma.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the consultation process for the prison sale and building programme.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
On 9 November 2015, the government announced a £1.3bn investment to reform and modernise the prison estate to make it more efficient, safer and focused on supporting prisoner rehabilitation. As part of this programme the Ministry of Justice will build new prison places while selling ageing, inefficient prisons to free up land for new homes.These new prisons will be designed to enable prisoners to engage with the educational and other rehabilitative services they need in order to turn their lives around and re-join their communities.
We are in the process of finding sites for new prisons, looking at our own and other government departments’ land holdings, contacting Local Authorities and considering other available sites. No decisions have yet been made on the locations of the new prisons. At the time we indicate our intention to proceed with a site we will carry out a public engagement event in the local area, working with the local authority and others to progress the site through the planning permission process.
Following a decision to close a prison and it subsequently being decommissioned the Ministry of Justice will prepare the site for disposal. The Ministry of Justice will work closely with the local authority and others, on future options for the site. Once a decision is made, the MoJ and its advisors will engage with the market and other stakeholders. No decisions have yet been made about prison sales.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the contract value allocated to each Community Rehabilitation Company and what percentage is spent on direct front line delivery staff as opposed to contract management staff.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The anticipated value of contracts for Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 4 February 2015.
CRCs are currently undergoing transformation including changes to their workforce. The proportion of cost spent on direct front line staff in the final operating model for each CRC will be different to the proportion of cost at the point of contract award and which will continue to vary from month to month until transformation is complete.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the most up to date commercial land market valuation for the Holloway Prison site.
Answered by Lord Faulks
On 9 November 2015, the government announced a £1.3bn investment to reform and modernise the prison estate to make it more efficient, safer and focused on supporting prisoner rehabilitation.
The Secretary of State for Justice announced on 25 November 2015 that HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Holloway would be closed as the first stage of this programme. HMP Holloway was closed on 22 June. Once the prison has been fully decommissioned it will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice Estates Directorate for disposal.
No decisions have yet been taken on the future of the Holloway site. The Ministry of Justice will work closely with the local authority and others, on future options for the site. Once a decision is made, the MoJ and its advisors will engage with the market and other stakeholders. Any valuation information is considered commercially sensitive and therefore cannot be released.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is decisions have been made about the future of the Holloway Prison site.
Answered by Lord Faulks
On 9 November 2015, the government announced a £1.3bn investment to reform and modernise the prison estate to make it more efficient, safer and focused on supporting prisoner rehabilitation.
The Secretary of State for Justice announced on 25 November 2015 that HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Holloway would be closed as the first stage of this programme. HMP Holloway was closed on 22 June. Once the prison has been fully decommissioned it will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice Estates Directorate for disposal.
No decisions have yet been taken on the future of the Holloway site. The Ministry of Justice will work closely with the local authority and others, on future options for the site. Once a decision is made, the MoJ and its advisors will engage with the market and other stakeholders. Any valuation information is considered commercially sensitive and therefore cannot be released.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have for the marketing of the Holloway Prison site.
Answered by Lord Faulks
On 9 November 2015, the government announced a £1.3bn investment to reform and modernise the prison estate to make it more efficient, safer and focused on supporting prisoner rehabilitation.
The Secretary of State for Justice announced on 25 November 2015 that HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Holloway would be closed as the first stage of this programme. HMP Holloway was closed on 22 June. Once the prison has been fully decommissioned it will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice Estates Directorate for disposal.
No decisions have yet been taken on the future of the Holloway site. The Ministry of Justice will work closely with the local authority and others, on future options for the site. Once a decision is made, the MoJ and its advisors will engage with the market and other stakeholders. Any valuation information is considered commercially sensitive and therefore cannot be released.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to monitor the impact of the closure of Holloway Prison on the number of family visits to relocated prisoners.
Answered by Lord Faulks
All women transferred from Holloway were carefully assessed as part of the prison’s closure planning. The assessment sought to ensure that they were held as close to home as was practicable given their individual circumstances.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many owners of Community Rehabilitation Companies have hired public relations companies or consultants since February.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), in line with Government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. CRCs are contracted to deliver services for a fixed fee. We are aware that some of the CRCs have contracted with Public Relations Agencies. However, we would not normally monitor information on how many owners hire PR companies or consultants.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proportion of people in the justice system currently supervised by the National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies is different to the proportions predicted during the Transforming Rehabilitation contracting process; and whether any differences between the predicted and actual numbers of people so supervised has had any impact on the development of the supply chains contained in the winning Transforming Rehabilitation contract bids.
Answered by Lord Faulks
No prediction of the case allocation split between the National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) was made at the time of the Transforming Rehabilitation competition. Instead, actual data was used to identify the proportion of cases that sat with either the NPS or CRCs. The actual proportion of offenders allocated to the NPS or CRCs is now different compared to that at the time of the competition. Any shift in the relative caseloads held between NPS and CRCs would be as a result of a change in the mix of offenders within the system
The Ministry of Justice monitors offender case allocation and expects providers to implement the supply chains that were set out in their bids during the TR competition, unless otherwise agreed with the Authority. We are working with suppliers to ascertain any potential impact on the supply chain.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the accuracy in practice of the Weighted Annual Volumes estimated for each contract package area in order to develop contracts for the Transforming Rehabilitation programme.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Weighted Annual Volume (WAV) was not estimated. Flat projections were made for each contract package area and made available to bidders for the purposes of bid evaluation. The contracts held with Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) include a payment mechanism which accounts for changes in volumes (paying providers more if volumes increase, and less if volumes decrease). This was communicated to providers throughout the bidding and competition process.