Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government (1) how many, and (2) what proportion, of prisons in England and Wales currently provide secure video calls for prisoners.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
All prisons (100%) across England and Wales have the capability to offer secure video calls with approved family members and friends, responding to demand from prisoners.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many mothers and babies residing in a prison Mother and Baby Unit were separated upon the child reaching 18 months of age in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Over the last three years, 110 applications to Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) have been approved. In the year to March 2023, 51 women and 44 babies were received into MBUs; compared with 39 women and 40 babies in the previous reporting year. Not all mother and babies that move onto a Mother & Baby Unit will be separated due to the child reaching 18 months old. As it would be necessary to review, individually, the records of each of the women accommodated on MBUs over the last three years to determine this, the information requested could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.
MBUs operate an 18-month upper age limit, as explained in the Policy Framework ‘Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units (MBUs), and Maternal Separation from Children up to the Age of Two in Women’s Prisons’. Consideration of this upper age limit was included in the 2020 policy review and is informed by the available research which has identified that, from 18 months onwards, babies may become more aware of their environment and so being in a custodial setting after that age may adversely impact a child’s development. However, it is fully recognised that there may be cases where it is in the best interests of the child for this age limit to be extended. As such, mothers can apply for an extension to the 18-month age limit, where this is applicable.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of cells in (1) the female prison estate, and (2) the male prison estate, have in-cell telephony; and what proportion of cells in each prison have that facility.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
There are a total of 10 Women’s Public Sector Prisons (8 closed and 2 open) in England which are run by His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service.
There are a total of 97 Men’s Prisons (84 closed and 13 open) in England and Wales, which are run by His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service.
Of the 84 closed men’s prisons:
Of the 13 open men’s prisons:
It is important to note that there are limitations to call usage on these devices. The PIN Phone system enables this as it can be configured on a site by site basis to best suit the needs of the site. This configuration applies to the time scales in which calls can be made, the number of calls which a single prisoner can make within those timescales and also the maximum amount of time the prisoner can spend on calls.
Additionally, each prisoner is issued a unique PIN number which they will use to make outside calls. These PIN numbers are pre-loaded with calling credit and also contain pre-approved numbers which security have sanctioned for the prisoner to use. The prison can configure the system to decide when the phones will be available to the prisoner. Support frameworks such as the Samaritans are accessible 24hrs a day via a dedicated PIN number which is available to prisoners.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the cost per minute to make a call from (1) a prison wing payphone, and (2) an in-cell phone, to (a) a landline, and (b) a mobile phone, at (i) weekends, and (ii) weekdays.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The cost per minute for prison wing payphone and in-cell phones are:
Calls to UK fixed lines:
3.10 pence during the week midnight Sunday to midday Friday
2.75 pence during the weekend midday Friday to midnight Sunday
Calls to UK mobiles:
6.88 pence during the week midnight Sunday to midday Friday
4.50 pence during the weekend midday Friday to midnight Sunday
Prisons are able to limit when calls can be made and the duration of time an individual can use a PIN phone for on a given day. These limitations will reflect the local capacity to handle multiple calls concurrently and their requirement to resource the monitoring of specific calls.
Prisoners pay for their own calls using prison earnings or money sent into them from family and friends. Calls to organisations such as the Samaritans are free to prisoners with HMPPS paying for these directly.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the pilot, launched in March 2021, with 15 magistrates’ courts, involving the Ministry of Justice, HMCTS and the probation service, of an alternative delivery model to increase the number of cases receiving pre-sentence reports.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) Pilot tested an Alternative Delivery Model for PSRs in 15 magistrates’ courts’ and concluded in March 2023.
Monitoring data collected during the pilot revealed that pilot courts delivered a higher proportion of PSRs per in-court disposal than non-pilot courts, including for each of the priority cohorts (young adults aged 18-24; women; offenders at risk of short-term custody). We also conducted a process evaluation to explore how the Alternative Delivery Model was implemented, including identifying any benefits, challenges, or unintended outcomes. The process evaluation was published on 15 June 2023 (Process evaluation of the Pre-Sentence Report Pilot - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) and has found that:
Findings from the pilot have shown some successful elements of the Alternative Delivery Model that we will now integrate into national delivery. This includes rolling out a refreshed training package for probation staff in court across England and Wales and rolling out the processes for the early identification of cases that would benefit from a PSR.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bellamy on 17 July (HL8979) on primary caring responsibilities, when they plan to publish findings from the Better Outcomes through Linked Data programme.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Better Outcomes Through Linked Data (BOLD) Programme is funded until March 2024. Findings will be published by the end of the Programme.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the introduction of the Basic Custody Screening Tool, how many (1) men, and (2) women, currently in custody have been assessed as having primary caring responsibilities; and how many children are affected by their imprisonment.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The data regarding the number of prisoners with primary caring responsibilities is not currently available. It is not possible to obtain the requested information without incurring disproportionate cost. The Basic Custody Screening (BCS) tool only captures the prisoner(s) self-declaration to questions asked by prison staff. There is currently no definitive way to cross check or validate the prisoners claim as to whether they do or do not have children, or the specific number of children.
The Government is seeking to improve our data and evidence in this area through the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) Programme. BOLD is a cross-government Shared Outcomes Fund project which will link data to enable better evidenced and more joined up cross government services. Through BOLD, we will explore data sharing to improve our understanding of the number of parents in prison and the number of children impacted by parental imprisonment. BOLD’s findings will include breakdowns by gender and sentence length, enabling us to identify how many female prisoners serving a sentence of 12 months or more have children. Findings will be published when the analysis is complete.
Changes have also been made to the Basic Custody Screening Tool to enable us to improve the quality of data on entry to prison about how many primary carers are in custody, how many children under the age of 18 are affected by their imprisonment and the ages of those children. The learning from the data collected will be incorporated into findings from the BOLD programme.
Since 2015, as part of the basic custody screening interview, we have recorded the answers of all new prisoners coming into custody as to whether they have been in the care of local authority children’s services at any time. The information is purely self-declared. The number of women in prison who have been identified as having previously been in local authority care at any time who entered custody in each of the last five years is provided in the table below.
Year | Number of Records |
2018-19 | 1367 |
2019-20 | 1263 |
2020-21 | 770 |
2021-22 | 878 |
2022-23 | 998 |
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women in prison have been identified as having previously been in local authority care in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The data regarding the number of prisoners with primary caring responsibilities is not currently available. It is not possible to obtain the requested information without incurring disproportionate cost. The Basic Custody Screening (BCS) tool only captures the prisoner(s) self-declaration to questions asked by prison staff. There is currently no definitive way to cross check or validate the prisoners claim as to whether they do or do not have children, or the specific number of children.
The Government is seeking to improve our data and evidence in this area through the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) Programme. BOLD is a cross-government Shared Outcomes Fund project which will link data to enable better evidenced and more joined up cross government services. Through BOLD, we will explore data sharing to improve our understanding of the number of parents in prison and the number of children impacted by parental imprisonment. BOLD’s findings will include breakdowns by gender and sentence length, enabling us to identify how many female prisoners serving a sentence of 12 months or more have children. Findings will be published when the analysis is complete.
Changes have also been made to the Basic Custody Screening Tool to enable us to improve the quality of data on entry to prison about how many primary carers are in custody, how many children under the age of 18 are affected by their imprisonment and the ages of those children. The learning from the data collected will be incorporated into findings from the BOLD programme.
Since 2015, as part of the basic custody screening interview, we have recorded the answers of all new prisoners coming into custody as to whether they have been in the care of local authority children’s services at any time. The information is purely self-declared. The number of women in prison who have been identified as having previously been in local authority care at any time who entered custody in each of the last five years is provided in the table below.
Year | Number of Records |
2018-19 | 1367 |
2019-20 | 1263 |
2020-21 | 770 |
2021-22 | 878 |
2022-23 | 998 |
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women in prison were transferred to a secure hospital under provisions in the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Please see below table showing the number of female prisoners who were transferred to a mental health hospital under Part 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983 1 in each of the last five years. This is in the context of a female prison population which stood at 3,253 as of June 2022:
2018 | 111 |
2019 | 125 |
2020 | 103 |
2021 | 102 |
2022 | 139 |
1) Includes remand and sentenced prisoners.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the 33 recommendations contained in The Farmer Review for Women, published in June 2019, have been implemented.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Since the publication of the Farmer Review for Women, we have implemented 27 out of 33 recommendations. We have embedded the importance of family ties and supportive relationships into delivery of the Female Offender Strategy and will continue to monitor this through the Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan.
On 31 January 2023 we published a progress update on the implementation of Lord Farmer’s Review for Women’s recommendations: farmer-review-women-progress-update.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk).