Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that more people from minority faith groups are recruited and retained by the UK armed forces.

Answered by Earl of Minto - Shadow Minister (Defence)

Defence is dedicated to recruiting and retaining the best talent, drawn from the broadest diversity of thought, skills, and background, to reflect the society we serve.

In addition to the various informal Defence staff networks that reflect faith and beliefs, the Armed Forces Chaplaincy is evolving to increase the proportion of minority faith chaplains, as well as non-religious pastoral officers to support Service personnel.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the faith literacy of those on the public payroll, including (1) civil servants, (2) the police, (3) NHS staff, and (4) HM Prison and Probation Service staff.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

We acknowledge the importance of faith literacy in the civil service and our public services, both to help us to fully understand and celebrate the role of faith in our society, but also to empower government to tackle harmful practices where they occur.

Improving faith literacy is one of the 22 recommendations put forward by Colin Bloom in his independent review of faith engagement. As with all recommendations of the review, the Government will consider this carefully and respond in due course.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their response to the recommendation of Colin Bloom in his report Does government ‘do God?’ An independent review into how government engages with faith, published on 26 April 2023, regarding the appointment of an independent faith champion.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to work with faith groups to support people being released from prison.

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

We work with faith groups to support prison leavers in several ways. Prison chaplaincy teams have links with community organisations, both faith-based and secular, and can often provide mentoring and support, either through an established community chaplaincy service or through individual arrangements.

His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) provides funding for the Welcome Directory, which connects prisons, and those who help prison leavers to resettle, with faith and belief communities who are prepared to welcome and support those leaving prison.

HMPPS has also established the Chaplaincy Faith and Belief Forum, which enables faith and belief representatives to discuss policy, operational issues and matters of general concern relating to pastoral care, faith and belief practice for those in prison and those under supervision in the community.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many deaths by suicide of people on probation there were in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years.

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

In the table below, please find the number of self-inflicted deaths of offenders supervised in the community by the Probation Service, financial year 2014/15 to 2023/24, England and Wales (1) (2) (3).

(p) The 2023/24 figures are provisional and may be updated in future publications to account for any changes or additions to the data since they were originally collected.

Notes

(1) These figures are published annually in the Deaths of offenders in the community publication, which is available at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/death-of-offenders-in-the-community.

(2) Apparent cause is as reported in annual returns (prior to 2020/21 only) or the national Delius case management system (nDelius) and has not been independently verified.

(3) The reporting period for these statistics (financial year 1 April to 31 March) relates to when the death occurred.

(4) The Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) was introduced on 1 February 2015 and corresponded with an increase in the number of offenders on post-release supervision. Caution should be used when comparing with earlier periods.

(5) A new set of death classifications was implemented on 1 April 2022 and, as such, figures from 2022/23 are not comparable to those presented for previous years. The category of 'self-inflicted death' up to 31 March 2022 includes any death of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life, irrespective of intent. The category of 'self-inflicted death' from 1 April 2022 includes any death of a person at their own hand, including where intent is undetermined. This includes some drug poisonings (e.g. where a suicide note is found, or the circumstances are suspicious) but not drug poisonings which appear to have been the accidental result of consumption for another purpose. Refer to the guide to deaths of offenders supervised in the community statistics (www.gov.uk/government/statistics/deaths-of-offenders-in-the-community-annual-update-to-march-2024/guide-to-deaths-of-offenders-in-the-community) for further details about the new set of classifications.

Data sources and quality: The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Source: National Delius (nDelius) case management system

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the early release scheme on the Probation Service; and what additional support and funding they are providing to the Probation Service in connection with that scheme.

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

SDS40 has resulted in certain offenders being released from custody earlier. This has led to extended periods on licence within the community, thereby increasing costs for the Probation Service and the Electronic Monitoring Service.

An Impact Assessment has been conducted and is published here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2024/117/pdfs/ukia_20240117_en.pdf.

Unlike the previous Government’s disastrous early release scheme, SDS40 is being managed carefully to ensure that the Probation Service is adequately prepared and able to plan effectively for release.

The Lord Chancellor announced new measures on 12 February to address the pressures faced by the Probation Service. These measures include:

• Recruiting 1,300 more probation officers in the next financial year, in addition to the 1,000 officers committed to by the end of this financial year.

• Keeping the public safe by concentrating on high-risk offenders, ensuring that lower-risk offenders are moved through the system quickly and referred to services that can help manage any addictions, secure jobs, and housing.

• Making better use of technology, including AI, to free up probation officers' time.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what the average caseload of probation officers in England and Wales was in each year of the last decade.

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

The average caseload of Probation Officers has been presented from the period July 2021 to February 2025. This is because the Probation Service unified in June 2021, with some Probation Officers and caseload held by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) prior to this point. The Probation Service does not have access to data for caseload held by CRCs .

Table One: Probation Officer average annual caseload across England and Wales

*Data presented based on an eight-month period rather than a full year.

Notes:

• The data within the Workload Measurement Tool (WMT) are manually entered by Senior Probation Officers (SPOs) for the purposes of ensuring that contracted hours and adjustments are accurate. These data are subject to inaccuracy as a result of the manual nature with which data are submitted.

• Annual average caseload per Probation Officer has been calculated by taking the average caseload on the last day of each month in that period.

• Even if staff do not have contracted hours, they can still have cases allocated to them by SPOs.

• There may be cases where staff who have left the Probation Service still appear to hold caseload on the WMT and so the data should be treated with caution. Furthermore, some staff on long-term absences (e.g. career breaks / long-term sickness) may still have a caseload allocated to them.

• Data have not been presented for the period prior to June 2021, the point at which unification of the Probation Service took place. Prior to June 2021, some Probation Officers and caseload were held by CRCs, data for which is not included in the WMT. It would not be consistent to present a time series of caseload per Probation Officer before and after unification.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many deaths by suicide there have been of people in prison in England and Wales for each year in the last decade.

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

Self-inflicted deaths are any deaths of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life irrespective of intent. This not only includes suicides, but also accidental deaths as a result of the person's own actions.

Data Sources and Quality:

These figures are derived from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System and the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Although the figures are shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.

1 - Deaths in prison custody figures include all deaths of prisoners arising from incidents during prison custody. They include deaths of prisoners while released on temporary license (ROTL) for medical reasons but exclude other types of ROTL where the state has less direct responsibility.

2 - Due to the number of deaths that remain unclassified (awaiting further information) in recent years, and the latest year particularly, caution should be used when comparing with earlier periods.

3 - A proportion of the most recent two years' figures for 'other' deaths are expected to be re-classified as natural causes or self-inflicted deaths.