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
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what leadership training is routinely provided to officers moving up the ranks in the Prison Service.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Officers have a wide range of leadership training available to them as they progress through the ranks.
All Ministry of Justice staff have access to a wide suite of cross-government training products available via Government Campus (part of Cabinet Office). These product topics include Coaching, Building your Team, and Career Development.
All Ministry of Justice staff also have access to two, four-day, intensive Leadership Schools per annum, focused on unlocking the potential to improve and transform their leadership capabilities. Leadership School provides keynote speeches, expert-led workshops, and in-depth peer reflection sessions, to ensure that leaders are equipped to use new capabilities in their roles.
In addition, MoJ HQ has developed a new HMPPS Leadership and Management Offer specifically for HMPPS staff (elements of this include the HMPPS People Manager Handbook and HMPPS People Manager Essentials Programme). HMPPS staff also have access to a wealth of free online resources on the myLearning Learning Management System.
There are several funded Leadership apprenticeships on offer for HMPPS staff, and a small number of leadership training interventions for HMPPS are provided by external providers.
The Spark Custodial scheme is an operational fast-track scheme for Public Sector Prisons, open to Operational Bands 2-4 and Non-Operational up to and including Band 6, that enables them to progress to Head of Function. The scheme lasts around 30 months for operational participants and 36 months for non-operational participants.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the prisoner telephony contract with the external commercial provider so that inmates are subject to the same terms and conditions as customers in the community.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The current supplier of the telephony service provides a service within the public prison estate which is not directly comparable to the services they provide to their customers in the community. In the prison estate, they also provide the network infrastructure and devices, a call management solution to allow for management of PIN phone accounts and to support call monitoring, and a call routing service to connect to phone numbers that have been permitted by HMPPS. The cost of the service is predominantly funded through prisoner credit purchases.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what band of seniority (1) family services leads and (2) family engagement leads typically occupy in prisons; and what assessment they have made of how this compares with education and employment leads.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Head of Reducing Re-offending (HoRR) – typically at Band 7 or 8 in His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) – is responsible for family services, together with other areas such as housing, finance/benefit/debt, faith, health/drug strategy and offending behaviour.
Unlike the HoRR role, there is no requirement at present to employ a Family Engagement Lead. In prisons where a member of HMPPS staff undertakes this role, it is normally in the range Band 3 – 5. These are predominately non-operational roles.
A Head of Education Skills & Work in an establishment is typically at Band 7. This is a functional management job, with responsibility for setting the strategic direction for all of education, skills and work within the prison.
Prisons Employment Leads, at Band 6, oversee Employment Hubs in prisons and support prisoners with employability, matching them to jobs in advance of their release.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their announcement on 18 September that protection zones around abortion clinics will be in force from 31 October, when they intend to respond to the Abortion clinic safe access zones: non-statutory guidance consultation, which ran from 1 December 2023 to 22 January 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government’s priority has been to commence Safe Access Zones as quickly as possible. The College of Policing and the Crown Prosecution Service will produce guidance for the police and prosecutors. We have engaged with our partners extensively on this issue and we do not believe it is necessary to issue government guidance as well, so this Government will not be following up the previous Government’s consultation on non-statutory guidance for Safe Access Zones.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to secure the release of the British hostage, Emily Damari, held in captivity in Gaza since the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel, and hostages directly related to British citizens such as Eli Sharabi, Avinatan Or and Oded Lifschitz.
Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We condemn Hamas' continued holding of hostages in Gaza, including Emily Damari and all those connected to British citizens. Hamas must release all the hostages now, and a ceasefire deal must be agreed urgently to end the suffering. Since our first day in government we have been working alongside our allies and partners in the region in support of ongoing negotiations. We appreciate the tireless efforts of our partners in Qatar, Egypt and the United States, and continue to use all diplomatic avenues to further our aims. The Foreign Secretary reaffirmed to Israeli Foreign Minister Katz in Israel the UK's support in working together to deliver the return of all the hostages. The Foreign Secretary and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan have also met the families of hostages with links to the UK, whose loved ones have been murdered or taken by Hamas, to express our deepest sympathies and to highlight the diplomatic efforts underway.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the Genomics England and NHS England ‘Generation Study’, offering 100,000 newborns whole genome sequencing after birth to diagnose and support a number of genetic conditions, does not include 22q11.2 deletion syndrome which meets the four requisite principles for inclusion.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Generation Study screens for over 200 conditions which were selected on a set of four principles. The expression, or penetrance, of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome is incomplete, meaning that some people with the syndrome may have no features of the condition. For this and many other conditions, including other microdeletion and microduplication syndromes, Genomics England has taken a conservative approach when applying the four principles, selecting only those conditions where penetrance is high and where treatment must be initiated very early in essentially all cases. Genomics England will review and add conditions during the course of the programme, and will publicise information about any review.