Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Timpson on 10 December (HL2894), what plans they have to reform telephony arrangements in prison so costs to prisoners are reduced to help strengthen family and significant other relationships and to facilitate rehabilitation.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is aware of the importance of allowing prisoners to maintain contact with family and other positive relationships, and the positive influence this can have on their wellbeing and rehabilitation. Provision of in-cell telephony is one of several ways that we enable that contact to take place.
We will shortly be commencing the reprocurement process to ensure continuation of a telephony service once our current contract terminates, and one of the key aims will be to ensure affordability for prisoners.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance they are giving to courts to signpost separating couples to early advice in Family Hubs, including support to stay together where appropriate, before separating couples can initiate court proceedings.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government recognises that early access to information for separating families is essential. This is why the family procedure rule committee has put in place Pre-Application Protocols to signpost separating couples to support which may help them resolve their dispute without court intervention. These protocols also outline the steps that couples are expected to take to try to resolve their dispute before making a court application.
If families do proceed to court, The President of the Family Division now sends a letter out to both the applicant and the respondent, pointing them towards a range of resources which may help them reach agreement away from court, where safe and appropriate, including the Government’s Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, which offers £500 towards the cost of mediation.
Further Family Procedure Rule changes, which came into force in April 2024, encourage more people to attend Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMs) before court. The MIAM is a meeting with a mediator to discuss whether mediation or another form of non-court dispute resolution may be preferable to proceeding to court.
The Government is also working to improve the information available, both online through GOV.UK, and offline via sources such as family hubs, to help inform separating families of their options before applying to court.
Taken together, these measures help ensure that separating families are getting the information and support they need as early as possible.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to provide, via Family Hubs, early advice and support on staying together to separating couples, before the start of court or other legal proceedings.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Through both the Family Hubs – Start for Life programme and the Family Hubs Transformation Fund there are now more than 400 family hubs open across the 88 Local Authorities. Family hubs, where appropriate should connect families going through parental separation to services and support locally to ensure outcomes for their children are front and centre when agreeing child arrangements. This is to help avoid the cost and potential trauma associated with going through the court process.
In areas with a developed family hub model, local authorities may provide hub-based mediation or other services in support of separating parents, such as shared parenting programmes. This is not a requirement of the programme but is strongly encouraged for areas who are seeking to enhance their offer.
The Government recognises the importance of supporting separating families to resolve their issues quickly, and where appropriate, without the need to come to court. This is why the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme continues to provide £500 towards the cost of mediation. To date, over £16 million of vouchers have helped 38,700 separating parents to access mediation.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what research they have funded or plan to fund to investigate the effectiveness of non-court dispute resolution support services for families, including non-legal options such as separated parenting programmes and Voice of the Child, to promote evidence-led outcomes for the benefit of children.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government recognises the importance of supporting separating families, and where appropriate, helping them resolve their issues quickly and without the need to come to court.
The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme continues to provide £500 towards the cost of mediation. To date, over £16 million of vouchers have helped 33,000 separating parents to access mediation. Analysis of the first 7,200 completed under the scheme suggests that 69% of participants reached whole or partial agreement and did not need to go on to court.
The Department for Work and Pensions runs the Reducing Parental Conflict (RPC) programme which aims to address frequent, intense and poorly resolved conflict between parents and improve outcomes for children.
The programme, funds grants to Local Authorities in England who work in partnership with multi-agency stakeholders, commissioning relationship support for parents in conflict. Evidence of the impact of these innovative services to increase access for diverse families can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/reducing-parental-conflict-programme-evaluation.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what training judges will receive to apply the new Family Procedure Rules and to ensure that parents are aware of and can access the full range of legal and non-legal non-court dispute resolution support services
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Ministry of Justice is not responsible for judicial training. This is the responsibility of the Judicial College.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the training provided to judges to apply the new Family Procedure Rules is delivered by judges or experts over the full range of legal and non-legal non-court dispute resolution support services
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Ministry of Justice is not responsible for judicial training. This is the responsibility of the Judicial College.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many FM5 forms are registered on court files as having been filed before first hearing, in compliance with the Family Procedure Rules issued in April.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service does not currently hold data on how many FM5 forms are filed before the first hearing.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether prevention will be included in early advice for separating couples, before court and other legal proceedings, including in family hubs; and whether relevant professionals will be appropriately curious about whether couples have considered mending their relationship and help them access support to stay together if that is what both parties want.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government recognises the importance of supporting separating families, and where appropriate, helping them resolve their issues quickly and without the need to come to court.
We know that early access to information for separating families is essential and we are working to improve the information, both online through GOV.UK, and offline via sources such as family hubs, to help inform separating families of their options before applying to court.
We also continue to work with the Department for Education to ensure that Family Hubs connect families going through parental separation to services and support locally, to ensure outcomes for their children are front and centre when agreeing child arrangements.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend either (1) to exempt prison family services providers from the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions or (2) to ensure that they are funded to cover those additional costs.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not have the legal authority to exempt any organisation from National Insurance Contribution increases and has not made any decisions, at this time, to fund any suppliers to cover these costs.
The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS will follow guidance from the Government and will continue to work with all suppliers to understand the impact of the recent changes to National Insurance Contributions and the feasibility of all suppliers, including Family Services, to continue to deliver their existing contractual obligations.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total annual budget for prisoner rehabilitation services; and how much of this is allocated to (1) family services, (2) employment training, (3) education and (4) other itemised rehabilitation activities.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Reoffending costs society over £22 billion a year and we know that access to valulable rehabilitation is an important tool in reducing that reoffending.
The overall Prisoner Rehabilitation Service budget for FY 24/25 is £360 million.
Family Services - £12 million
Employment Training - £25 million
Education including Prisoner Education contracts - £191 million
Other itemised rehabilitation activities - £132 million