Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) women, and (2) men, are currently serving prison sentences for non-payment of council tax.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
As at 30 June 2019 (latest available data) no females and one male were in prison, having been committed to prison for non-payment of council tax.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the increased risks to maternal and infant health caused by COVID-19 (1) in the UK, and (2) around the globe.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The National Health Service is making arrangements to ensure the care, support and safety of women through pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period to mitigate increased pressures on healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic. NHS England and NHS Improvement have published a clinical guide for the temporary reorganisation of intrapartum maternity care to ensure the safety of mothers, babies and staff. To reduce the risk of infection, there are now restrictions on visitors in most hospitals and maternity units. Further, the Department is funding several studies researching the impact of COVID-19 on maternity and neonatal care to ensure rapid learning.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) security, and (2) privacy, provisions are being used to protect the data of the users of the NHSX COVID-19 contact tracing application; and what steps they have taken to ensure that the information gathered by that application is what is required by (a) epidemiologists, and (b) public health officials.
Answered by Lord Bethell
We have worked rigorously to make the app as privacy-conscious as possible, only collecting the data necessary to fulfil its epidemiological purpose and save lives. Security and privacy have been prioritised at all stages of the app’s development and we have drawn on expertise from across Government and industry to review our app’s designs.
Any user data collected centrally by the National Health Service will be held to the highest security standards. In addition to the continual monitoring, review and oversight undertaken by the NHS, we have consulted with the National Cyber Security Centre to review and supplement our processes. The app has been designed to calculate a user’s risk of infection using a heuristic model developed in collaboration with expert epidemiologists from the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute. We have published an explanation of how the risk scoring algorithm works on the online only FAQ page of the NHS COVID-19 website. NHS doctors and scientists will continuously update the risk scoring algorithm to make it as accurate as possible.
The data collected supports the wider public health approach of manual contact tracing and testing. Anyone who has symptoms that are consistent with COVID-19, whether or not they are an app user, will be able to report those symptoms and get a test to find out if they have the virus.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many pregnant women have been released from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
On 31 March, this government announced that pregnant women and prisoners living on Mother and Baby Units will be considered for Release on Temporary licence on compassionate grounds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of Friday 1 May, 21 pregnant women and prisoners with babies in custody have been released.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 20 January (HL111), why the total number of releases, as outlined in the table Accommodation on Release from Custody: National Accommodation Circumstances, England and Wales between April 2017 and March 2019, has dropped from 18,239 in Quarter 1, to 12,544 in Quarter 4, of the 2018/19 financial year.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Issues have been identified with the data reported in the Accommodation and Employment annexes to the Community Performance Quarterly publication and this will be re-issued at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-update-to-june-2019 once these have been resolved.
A corrected version of HL111 will also be provided. We aim to have this issue resolved by the end of the month.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to begin recording statistics on (1) the resettlement of offenders leaving prisons, and (2) prisoners who are released with no fixed abode.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The accommodation status for all offenders released from custody, including those under National Probation Service (NPS), Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) supervision, and offenders on community sentences, has been published since July 2018. The latest publication can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-update-to-march-2019. The relevant table of data from this publication is attached for reference.
It is vital that everyone leaving prison has somewhere safe and secure to live, as a platform to access the services and support needed to make a fresh start. We have invested an additional £22 million per annum over the remaining life of the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts to deliver an enhanced “Through-the-Gate” resettlement service to offenders leaving prison, to prepare them for release. Through the Government’s Rough Sleeping Strategy, we are also investing up to £6.4m in a pilot scheme to support individuals released from three prisons: Bristol, Leeds and Pentonville. Services have now commenced in all three areas, with the first individuals now being supported into accommodation following release. Subject to evaluation, we will use the lessons from the pilot to inform future provision of accommodation for all ex-offenders. Additionally, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service is working in collaboration with other Government Departments and interested parties to help to meet the accommodation needs for prisoners on their release.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many police stations have closed in each county in England and Wales since 2010.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office does not hold information centrally on the amount of police station closures across England and Wales.
Decisions on the use of resources, including police stations, are a matter for Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables as they best understand the needs of the communities they serve.
The Government has taken the unprecedented step to recruit 20,000 new officers over the next three years. This is in addition to the £1 billion increase in police funding this year as a result of the 2019/20 Police Funding settlement, including money raised through council tax and the serious violence funding.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 10 July (HL16975), how many deaths occurred in (1) HMP Styal, and (2) HMP Peterborough, in (a) March, (b) April, and (c) May 2019; what was the cause of death in each case; and what steps they took to ensure that the earlier Written Answer was accurate.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
All deaths in custody are reported to Her Majesty's Prison & Probation Service within 24 hours. That report includes (among other things) the name of the deceased, the date they died, their gender, and a brief description of the circumstances of their death. Where possible the report will give a provisional cause of death. The prison is also obliged to report the death to the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman, to allow her investigation to begin, and all deaths in custody are the subject of an inquest. The cause of death may be updated later in light of the Ombudsman’s report and/or the coroner’s verdict.
The answer to question 16975 gave figures taken from data that the Government published on 25 April 2019, covering deaths in custody up to the end of March. My officials have double-checked and I can confirm that those figures were correct. Data about deaths in custody can be inspected using the Deaths data tool at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-december-2018. As the question was about deaths during 2019, the causes of death are provisional and may be updated once the investigations outlined above have been concluded.
The table below gives the number of deaths at HMP Styal and HMP Peterborough in March, April and May 2019.
| HMP Styal | HMP Peterborough |
March 2019 | 1 (self-inflicted) | - |
April 2019 | - | 1 (self-inflicted) |
May 2019 | 1 (self-inflicted) | - |
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 8 July (HL16975), what process Her Majesty’s Prison Service uses to (1) record, (2) classify, and (3) centrally collect information about, any deaths of those imprisoned in women’s prisons.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
All deaths in custody are reported to Her Majesty's Prison & Probation Service within 24 hours. That report includes (among other things) the name of the deceased, the date they died, their gender, and a brief description of the circumstances of their death. Where possible the report will give a provisional cause of death. The prison is also obliged to report the death to the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman, to allow her investigation to begin, and all deaths in custody are the subject of an inquest. The cause of death may be updated later in light of the Ombudsman’s report and/or the coroner’s verdict.
The answer to question 16975 gave figures taken from data that the Government published on 25 April 2019, covering deaths in custody up to the end of March. My officials have double-checked and I can confirm that those figures were correct. Data about deaths in custody can be inspected using the Deaths data tool at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-december-2018. As the question was about deaths during 2019, the causes of death are provisional and may be updated once the investigations outlined above have been concluded.
The table below gives the number of deaths at HMP Styal and HMP Peterborough in March, April and May 2019.
| HMP Styal | HMP Peterborough |
March 2019 | 1 (self-inflicted) | - |
April 2019 | - | 1 (self-inflicted) |
May 2019 | 1 (self-inflicted) | - |
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many deaths there have been in women's prisons in 2019, broken down by (1) cause, (2) classification, and (3) prison.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The table below shows the numbers of deaths in women’s prisons, by classification, up to the end of March 2019. That is the latest date for which figures are available.
Prison | self-inflicted | homicide | natural causes | other non-natural | awaiting classification |
Askham Grange | - | - | - | - | - |
Bronzefield | - | - | - | - | - |
Downview | - | - | - | - | - |
Drake Hall | - | - | - | - | - |
Eastwood Park | - | - | - | - | - |
East Sutton Park | - | - | - | - | - |
Foston Hall | - | - | - | - | - |
Low Newton | - | - | 1 | - | - |
New Hall | - | - | - | - | - |
Peterborough (F) | - | - | - | - | - |
Send | - | - | - | - | - |
Styal | 1 | - | - | - | - |