Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the level of violence in prisons.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Despite the progress made, the level of violence in prisons remains too high. We are continuing work to address this by giving all staff the tools and training needed to help them reduce violence.
We are spending £100 million across the estate to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars.
We have developed the Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan (CSIP), which is the national case management model for managing those who pose a raised risk of being violent and is being used in all prisons.
We are rolling out PAVA, a synthetic pepper spray, in the adult male estate to protect staff and prisoners from incidents where there is serious violence, or an imminent or perceived risk of serious violence. Alongside this will be the introduction of a new Personal Safety package; (S.P.E.A.R.) to ensure that PAVA is introduced as part of a wider package of skills for staff to resolve and deescalate incidents.
We continue to support the effective use of the 6,000 Body Worn Video Cameras across the estate, whilst continuing to embed the training provided to staff to promote rehabilitative conversations. This provides staff with skills and equipment to deal with challenging situations in a fair and just way. The cameras will also provide high-quality evidence to support prosecutions.
Any prisoner who commits an act of violence should expect to have action taken against them, including an adjudication, which could downgrade their incentives and earned privileges level, or further time added to their sentence.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many convictions relating to human trafficking were recorded in (1) 2019, and (2) 2020.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The Ministry of Justice has published information on convictions for offences relating to human trafficking, up to December 2019, available in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, attached and here:
Offences relating to human trafficking and their offence codes, are the following:
In 2019, there were 25 convictions for offences relating to the above human trafficking.
Data for 2020 is due to be published in May 2021.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the UK prisons’ annual budget is allocated (1) to translation, and (2) to interpretation, services within prisons; and how this budget has changed since 2016.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The table below represents data for translation including interpretation services budget, by year since 2016, for Public Sector Prisons in England and Wales including Young Offender Institutions.
Financial Year | Translation Budget (including interpretation) £ | Total Budget £ | % of Total Budget |
2016/17 | 729,744 | 1,345,226,277 | 0.05 |
2017/18 | 805,895 | 1,418,386,607 | 0.06 |
2018/19 | 1,777,000 | 1,994,086,000 | 0.09 |
2019/20 | 1,756,000 | 2,136,784,000 | 0.08 |
2020/21 | 1,637,000 | 2,218,637,000 | 0.07 |
To note within the tables:
Figures have been extracted from our ledger records.
Both translation and interpretation are held under one budget line in our ledgers; it is not possible to provide separate figures.
Budget data at this granular level is not available for privately managed prisons.
Budget allocations for the translation budget are decided at local prison level according to requirement.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many offenders were transferred from prisons in England and Wales to prisons in Northern Ireland in (1) 2019, and (2) 2020 to date.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Eight offenders were transferred from prisons in England and Wales to prisons in Northern Ireland in 2019. There have been no such transfers in 2020 as a result of Covid-19 restrictions.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken to ensure the safety of staff in prisons.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We do not underestimate the challenges faced by everyone working in prisons. We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and providing prison staff with the right support, training and tools to empower them to do their jobs.
We are giving officers PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer, as well as access to post incident care teams, occupational health support and counselling for those who need it. More widely, we are spending £100 million to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars. This will fund tough airport-style security, body scanners and phone-blocking technology.
Violence against our hardworking prison officers is unacceptable, and we work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to bring the perpetrators to justice. Additionally, as outlined in our Sentencing White Paper we will double the maximum sentence for assaulting an emergency worker from 12 months to two years.
Alongside these measures, to ensure staff are safe during the COVID-19 pandemic we are providing PPE and ensuring social distancing is in place where possible.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - 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 6 August (HL7330), how many British Armed Forces veterans are serving a custodial sentence as of 30 June.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service records previous service in the Armed Forces as part of the reception process for newly received prisoners. Information on previous service does not capture if an individual has served in the British Armed Forces or that of another nation. Those who choose to declare previous service may be referring to time spent with the UK forces or with those of another country.
As stated previously, as of 30 June 2019, there were 1,833 prisoners serving a custodial sentence in England and Wales who had declared former military service. The next estimated release on ex-Armed Service Personnel is scheduled for the end of October 2020.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - 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 6 August (HL7333), how many of the 20,000 prisoners and 10,000 staff at the 28 sites of the testing study have now taken up the invitation to carry out an antigen test.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
In July 2020, a Covid-19 testing study commenced in 28 prisons in England. The testing programme is being conducted to help understand the spread of Coronavirus in prisons and how it is transmitted within individual establishments and across the wider estate. It is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Southampton, Public Health England, Department of Health and Social Care and National Audit Office.
The results will be used to aid the management of the virus, thereby protecting lives and reducing its spread, as well as to assist in managing any future pandemic in a prison custodial setting.
The study involves asking both prisoners and staff to volunteer to undertake antigen tests to ascertain if they are currently infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19. The study is ongoing, however the first round of testing saw 12500 tests taken. 4400 of these tests were from staff and 8100 were from prisoners.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many armed forces veterans are currently serving a custodial sentence.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Since January 2015, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has actively been recording service in the Armed Forces as part of the screening process for newly received prisoners into custody.
A breakdown of experimental statistics published in October 2019 indicates that as of 30 June 2019, there were 1,833 prisoners serving a custodial sentence in England and Wales that have declared they have been a member of the armed services.
The department is due to release the next estimate of the total number of ex-armed services in October 2020 which will include data as of 30 June 2020.
The Ministry of Justice remains committed to encouraging people in the criminal justice system to declare service in the Armed Forces, as early as possible or at any point whist serving their sentence. This enables them to access the support available, whether that is in custody or the community.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many adjudications related to incidences of violence against prison staff there were in each year since 2014; and how many of those incidences resulted in additional days being added to a prisoner's sentence.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The prisoner discipline system upholds justice in prisons and ensures incidents of prison rule-breaking have consequences. Only Independent Adjudicators, who are District Judges or Deputy District Judges, can make an award of additional days to a prisoner’s custodial time left to serve.
Where an act of violence amounts to a criminal offence, prisoners should be investigated by the police and face serious sanctions. The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 has increased sentencing powers for offences of common assault and battery committed against an emergency worker. This provides Courts with the powers to punish those who commit violent crime against prison staff.
The information requested can be found in the table attached.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government (1) how many prison staff have been tested for COVID-19; and (2) how many prisoners in all prisons have been tested for COVID-19.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
A testing programme is being conducted to help understand the spread of Coronavirus in prisons and how it is transmitted within individual establishments and across the wider estate began on Monday 20 July.
The testing study is taking place across 28 prisons in England and is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Southampton, Public Health England, Department of Health and Social Care and National Audit Office.
Every one of the 20,000 prisoners and 10,000 staff at the 28 sites will be invited to carry out an antigen test, consisting of mouth and nose swabs, to see if they currently have the virus. Participation is completely voluntary but we encourage as many as possible to carry out the test. The test will be repeated two more times with a gap of three weeks between each test.
This testing study follows a pilot of voluntary testing of both staff and prisoners at HMP Littlehey. This consisted of over 1,000 tests being undertaken and pleasingly no positive results were found.
This testing study runs for 9 to 12 weeks to allow all three testing rounds to be completed.
Currently, the establishments which have started undertaking this COVID-19 prevalence Testing Programme are: Bure, Coldingley, Drake Hall, Frankland, Gartree, High Down, Leeds, Lewes, New Hall, Norwich, Send, The Mount, Wandsworth and Wealstun.
As of 5pm 30th July 2020, there have been 2542 prisoner tests with four positive results. There have been 1571 staff tests with three positive results.
With HMPPS staff being able to self-refer for testing the complete number of staff who have been tested for COVID-19 is unknown by HMPPS. While the total number of tests carried out on prisoners since testing began is also unknown, the Ministry of Justice has started publishing a weekly release of Covid-19 related statistics, which includes confirmed COVID-19 cases in prisoners and children in custody. These statistics provide total numbers across England and Wales.
The statistics release can be found here each Friday:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hm-prison-and-probation-service-covid-19-statistics