Lord Bishop of Rochester

We have made no assessment of the impact of the policy to freeze Local Housing Allowance rates upon levels of homelessness.

There is no clear evidence to suggest that the policy is contributing to increased homelessness. Further the latest statistics show that the number of homelessness acceptances in England has decreased slightly over the past year and the figures are very similar to the homelessness acceptances when the freeze commenced.

This information is not available. Affordability is dependent on many factors, for example rent levels in the area the claimant lives, the size of their household and other sources of income they may receive in addition to their housing benefit or universal credit entitlement.

As of Friday, 29 May our management information shows that there were 162 prisoners currently showing symptoms of Covid-19. Of those, 85 (52%) had been tested. Our records show that a further 3450 prisoners had previously displayed symptoms of Covid-19 where cases are now closed. Of those, 1447 (or 42%) had been tested.

Tests are conducted on symptomatic prisoners on site, as directed and advised by PHE. The testing capacity and availability is dependent on local commissioning services, therefore the numbers of those tested varies by establishment. This means that the total number of cases at any establishment can include clinically diagnosed but untested cases, as well as those who have a confirmed COVID-19 positive result.

All new receptions into prison including those received from the courts are screened for signs and symptoms of Covid-19 by healthcare professionals and are quarantined in a Reverse Cohorting Unit (RCU) until it is safe to be moved.

On 2 June, this Government published the National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services which sets out the conditional roadmap for the gradual resumption of services and regimes in prisons. One of the key objectives highlighted in this document is to ensure that we have enough space to receive from the courts and sufficient capacity to meet overall demand, while managing the risks of infection through the continued implementation of our compartmentalisation strategy.

The data requested can be found below and is correct as of Friday 19 June.

Please note, for the number of staff suspected of having Covid-19 the guidance was changed on 20 April so that symptomatic staff members could be identified separately. Before 20 April all staff members who were isolating under the PHE guidance were counted and those who were symptomatic could not be identified specifically. This may have slightly overestimated the number of symptomatic staff before 20 April. For some regions this data has been backdated so the total number of staff suspected of having Covid-19 is known.

On 24 April, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced the rollout of Covid-19 testing for all essential workers and symptomatic members of their household, including prison staff.

From 15 April, due to the sufficient availability of testing supplies all symptomatic prisoners were tested.

Regions by prison group:

Region 1 – Cumbria and Lancashire; Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire

Region 2 – Yorkshire; Tees and Wear

Region 3 – North Midlands; West Midlands; East Midlands

Region 4 – Avon and South Dorset; South Central; Devon and North Dorset

Region 5 – Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk; Hertfordshire, Essex and Suffolk

Region 6 – London; Kent, Surrey and Sussex

Region 7 – Long Term and High Security Estate

Notes

- Staff suspected of having Covid-19 have been calculated as staff who are on sickness absence or showing symptoms. There may be other staff with suspected Covid-19 who are in the self-isolating category not included here.

- Prisoners suspected of having Covid-19 have been calculated as prisoners recorded as displaying symptoms.

- Some staff or prisoners may be counted twice if they have had two periods of symptoms.

- Confirmed staff cases are self-reported.

- Staff and prisoner hospitalisations have been calculated as those who have tested positive and have been hospitalised. The hospitalisation may not have been as a result of Covid-19 in some cases, and there may be other cases where Covid-19 has not been confirmed which are included here.

- These numbers include all historic cases, many of which are now closed.

- Data for staff deaths represents individuals that have been confirmed as having Covid-19, though it is not necessarily the cause of death.

- Data for prisoner deaths represents individuals where Covid-19 is suspected to be the cause.

- These tables include silver command regions 1 to 7 which cover prisons in England, but also include 2 STCs and 1 IRC.

- Staff figures contain both directly and non-directly employed staff.

- The symbol ~ denotes suppressed values of 4 or fewer to avoid the risk of identifying individuals.

- These figures have been drawn from the daily HMPPS Covid-19 reports. 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.

The Ministry of Justice has started publishing a weekly release of Covid-19 related statistics. This includes confirmed Covid-19 cases in prisoners and children in custody; and deaths among prisoners and children in custody where Covid-19 is suspected to be the cause.

The statistics release can be found here each Friday: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hm-prison-and-probation-service-covid-19-statistics

Please note, this publication provides statistics for prisons across England and Wales, the data in the tables above relates to prisons in England only.

The Government recognises the importance of maintaining family ties and following the cancellation of social prison visits it has moved quickly to keep prisoners in touch with their family members by other means.

Following a successful trial at HMP Berwyn, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is introducing secure video calling to prisons and young offender institutions (YOIs) across England and Wales to maintain vital family contact for prisoners and young offenders during the coronavirus pandemic.

As of 5 June we have deployed equipment to 20 establishments. (HMP Berwyn, HMP Bronzefield, HMP Buckley Hall, HMP Chelmsford, HMP Deerbolt, HMP Downview, HMP Durham, HMP Eastwood Park, HMP Full Sutton, HMP Garth, HMP High Down, HMP Hull, HMP Send, HMP Stocken, HMP Swinfen Hall, HMP Wayland, HMYOI Cookham Wood, HMYOI Feltham,HMYOI Werrington, HMYOI Wetherby).

Details of establishments where families can book calls is updated as they go live on GOV.UK and social media for families. The level of provision to offer calls will differ by establishment based on local circumstances.

We continue to implement our compartmentalisation strategy: isolating the symptomatic, quarantining new arrivals and shielding the vulnerable. This strategy has shown early signs of success in reducing transmission in the prison estate.

As of 15 June, 96% of prisons have fully implemented compartmentalisation. Broken down by unit, 98% have fully implemented protective isolation units; 98% have fully implemented shielding units; and 98% have fully implemented reverse cohorting units.