Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to combat overcrowding in prisons.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In prisons where there is overcrowding, a rigorous cell certification process ensures that the use of cells is subject to a formal assessment of safety and decency.
On 16 October 2023, the Lord Chancellor announced additional, longer-term measures to reform the justice system and continue to address the prison capacity challenges. The measures announced include: extending the Early Removal Scheme, introducing a presumption to suspend sentences of 12 months or less, curtailing the license period for IPP sentences and extending the use of Home Detention Curfew.
To meet pressing demand, we are building c.20,000 modern, rehabilitative prison places – the biggest prison build programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through new prisons HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way, and we have been rolling out 1,000 Rapid Deployment Cells across 18 prisons. By the end of 2025, we will have delivered over 10,000 in total.
The Government will continue to carefully monitor demand for prison places so that we can make sure we have the right approach in place to maintain the capacity required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many successful prosecutions of people-smugglers there have been in England and Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce reoffending.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Over the last 10 years, overall proven re-offending has decreased from 30.9 per cent (2009-10) to 25.6 per cent (2019-20).
In the 2021 Prisons Strategy White Paper, we set out ambitious cross-government plans to tackle re-offending issues. We are investing £550 million in services over the Spending Review period to get offenders into skills training, work and stable accommodation. The White Paper was published alongside the Government’s 10-Year Drug Strategy, and we are investing an additional £120 million to tackle substance misuse.
We are also strengthening the supervision and monitoring of offenders in the community by:
We are also giving £300 million of funding over the Spending Review period to youth offending teams in England and Wales – the largest investment in youth justice in a generation.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the backlog of court cases.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to supporting the recovery of the courts and our decisive action kept justice moving during the pandemic. Now that barristers have returned to work, we can work together to drive down the backlog and ensure victims see justice served sooner.
To increase capacity in the Criminal Justice System, we have removed the limit on sitting days in the Crown Court for the second year in a row and extended 30 Nightingale courtrooms beyond the end of March 2022. Over the next three financial years, we are investing an extra £477 million for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime and address the Crown Court backlog.
Over the next three financial years we are also investing £324 million to further improve waiting times in the civil and family courts, and tribunals. In July 2022, we introduced a Virtual Region pilot scheme to support civil and family courts in London and the South East. In March 2021 we launched the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme to encourage people to resolve their disputes outside of court where safe and appropriate to do so.
Across all jurisdictions, we are recruiting more judges to enable us to sit at the maximum possible level over the coming years.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the (1) direct, and (2) indirect, costs of imprisonment; what alternatives, if any, they are considering; and what steps are they taking, if any, to promote these alternatives.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The direct cost of holding offenders in Custody for 2019-20 in England and Wales was £2.4bn. The indirect costs for the year were £1.1bn. The overall cost was therefore calculated at £3.5bn. These figures were taken from the latest published Prison Unit Cost statistics (Cost per prison place and Cost per prisoner).
The Government is clear that delivering public protection is not just about better use of custody. In many cases – particularly for low-level offending – effective community supervision keeps the public safer by intervening early to deflect offenders away from future offending and so prevent future victims.
The Government’s Sentencing White Paper, published in September 2020, set out an agenda of reform for punishing and rehabilitating low level offenders. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which is currently before Parliament, is delivering on reforms to make community sentences more robust and effective, so that they offer an appropriate level of punishment and address the underlying drivers of offending where appropriate. This will be achieved by piloting a problem-solving court approach for certain community and suspended sentence orders, closer supervision of certain offenders, and the option for tougher and more flexible use of electronically monitored curfews to better reflect the punishment intended, better support rehabilitation, and better protect victims.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people are in custody in England and Wales awaiting trial; and what is the average time taken from imprisonment to trial for those in custody.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The latest published data by the Ministry of Justice shows that on 31 December 2020 there were 8,222 prisoners in custody awaiting trial in England & Wales (Table 1.1, “Prison Population: 31 December 2020” https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2020).
Prison receptions data has enabled an approximation of the average time taken from imprisonment to trial for those in custody. Table 2 sets out (for those held on pre-trial remand) the average amount of time that prisoners were remanded in custody pre-trial up to the point that they were admitted to prison between conviction and sentencing in each of the last five years. In 2019 the average (mean) number of days that prisoners were remanded in custody pre-trial was 67. Published figures for the whole calendar year 2020 are not yet available.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people over the age of 18 are awaiting trial for alleged offences committed while they were 17 years old.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
As at 31 December 2020, there were 18 outstanding cases in the Crown Court where the defendant was aged 17, had entered a not-guilty plea to one or more counts and for whom a trial date had been set. There were 38 outstanding cases in the Crown Court where the defendant was aged 17 at the time of the earliest offence on the case, and on 31 December 2020, the defendant was aged 18 or more, had entered a not-guilty plea to one or more counts and for whom a trial date had been set.1 To provide this data for Magistrates Courts would require examination of individual file records and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
HMCTS prioritises and regularly reviews youth cases to clear outstanding cases and reduce the number of children awaiting trial. In 2020 outstanding youth cases at the magistrates' court reached an annual peak of 12,138 in June, then consistently fell to 9,930 cases by December. In the same period, outstanding youth cases at the Crown Court remained stable, peaking at 665 in October then falling to 629 by December. HMCTS prioritises cases where there is a possibility that the defendant may turn 18 before conviction. The judiciary has re-published a note about listing in magistrates’ courts highlighting the impact on the remand status of youth defendants and the need to list cases expeditiously where a child is about to turn 18.
1. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that the data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when data are used.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people aged 17 are awaiting trial in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
As at 31 December 2020, there were 18 outstanding cases in the Crown Court where the defendant was aged 17, had entered a not-guilty plea to one or more counts and for whom a trial date had been set. There were 38 outstanding cases in the Crown Court where the defendant was aged 17 at the time of the earliest offence on the case, and on 31 December 2020, the defendant was aged 18 or more, had entered a not-guilty plea to one or more counts and for whom a trial date had been set.1 To provide this data for Magistrates Courts would require examination of individual file records and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
HMCTS prioritises and regularly reviews youth cases to clear outstanding cases and reduce the number of children awaiting trial. In 2020 outstanding youth cases at the magistrates' court reached an annual peak of 12,138 in June, then consistently fell to 9,930 cases by December. In the same period, outstanding youth cases at the Crown Court remained stable, peaking at 665 in October then falling to 629 by December. HMCTS prioritises cases where there is a possibility that the defendant may turn 18 before conviction. The judiciary has re-published a note about listing in magistrates’ courts highlighting the impact on the remand status of youth defendants and the need to list cases expeditiously where a child is about to turn 18.
1. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that the data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when data are used.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to bring forward measures to safeguard against predatory marriages, particularly those involving older people.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
A registration official has a duty to stop proceedings if they are of opinion that either of the parties to a marriage does not have the capacity to marry. The Government has no current legislative plans to change the existing safeguards.
The Law Commission is currently reviewing how and where weddings take place, including the formalities and safeguarding checks required before a marriage is conducted. The Government looks forward to publication of the Law Commission’s consultation paper in September.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the condition of the prison estate.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We recognise the need to invest in the maintenance of the existing prison estate. £156m of maintenance funding has been committed for financial year 2020/21 as a first step to addressing maintenance pressures. We will be targeting this funding at worn out and failing infrastructure, as well as supporting additional maintenance workload.
In the previous financial year, we invested an additional £31m to improve conditions in some of the prisons with the most pressing issues. This saw us refurbish nearly 1,000 cells, over 100 shower blocks and 14 food serveries, and in addition carry out essential fire safety work.
We have launched a Living Conditions Audit across 60 prisons and a national Clean and Decent Project is also underway, producing materials such as cleaning schedules, guidance and training for all prisons to draw on to improve conditions.
We have set out our commitment to build 10,000 additional prison places through an investment of £2.5 billion to refurbish the estate and to create modern prisons. Work to construct a new prison at Wellingborough is progressing on schedule and we have planning permission to build a 1,680-place prison at Glen Parva, scheduled to start in Summer 2020.
We will also be seeking further longer-term increases in capital funding in discussions with HM Treasury in order for us to continue to make progress on the condition of the prison estate.