Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what repairs and maintenance they intend to carry out, and over what timeframe, at HMP Winchester following the recent inspection report of the prison.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HM Prison & Probation Service will provide HM Inspectorate of Prisons with its initial response to the Urgent Notification about HMP Winchester, and its immediate action plan, by no later than 21 November. This will be followed by a full response to the inspection report, and a detailed action plan specifying all remedial works and the timeframes for their completion.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to place HMP Winchester into special measures.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons invoked an Urgent Notification (UN) at HMP Winchester on 24 October after a concerning inspection. While there is no specific “special measures” process for prisons, once a site is subject to UN it is placed under enhanced supervision from senior officials within His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) until such time as we are confident that sufficient progress has been made.
The Lord Chancellor and I are determined to drive improvement at HMP Winchester and, as a first step in response to the UN, we will publish our initial action plan setting out the actions we will be taking by no later than 21 November 2024.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether immigration legal aid providers can be reached by public transport from the Wethersfield accommodation site.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are public transport routes within the vicinity of Wethersfield Accommodation Site from which it would be possible for residents to travel to legal aid providers who undertake immigration and asylum work. The site itself also runs a shuttle service three times a day into Colchester where residents can access legal aid services.
The legal aid contracts in place permit solicitors to travel to Wethersfield to provide advice and assistance where face to face advice is required and the client is unable to travel to the solicitor. In these cases, the solicitor will be paid for their reasonable travel time and costs.
Additionally, the Legal Aid Agency has introduced greater contractual flexibility under the 2024 Standard Civil Contract regarding the provision of remote advice. The Contract permits that up to 75% of immigration and asylum advice can be delivered remotely, compared against 50% in other civil categories. Remote provision can be an effective method of providing legal advice in the majority of cases. As such clients residing at Wethersfield are able to access remote advice from wider pool of legal aid providers reducing the need to travel out of area for advice.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the prison population in Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
On 16 October, the Lord Chancellor announced additional, longer-term measures to reform the justice system and continue to address the prison capacity challenges. The Lord Chancellor’s measures apply to England and Wales and include:
o Extending the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) for foreign national offenders;
o Introducing a presumption that sentences of twelve months or less are suspended to reduce reoffending;
o Legislating to allow prisoners to be held in overseas prisons;
o Reviewing the incentives around early guilty pleas to save the courts time, spare victims the ordeal of giving evidence in court, and cut the number of people in our prisons on remand;
o Looking at options to tackle the injustice of the now abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence and how the licence period could be reduced to restore greater proportionality to the IPP sentence;
o Reviewing our Home Detention Curfew (HDC) policy to increase the number of prisoners eligible for this successful rehabilitative measure;
o Reviewing the use of recall for offenders on release who infringe the terms of their licence; and,
o A new annual statement on prison capacity and up to £400m of funding for more prison places (enough to buy 800 new Rapid Deployment Cells).
The Government will continue to carefully monitor the evolving situation with demand for prison places so that we can make sure we have the right approaches in place to maintain the capacity required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support female Welsh prisoners held in English prisons, both during and after their imprisonment, to reintegrate into the community.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
All women’s prisons have an embedded pre-release provision delivered by the Probation Service. The pre-release team liaise with the Community Probation Practitioner as allocated and support pre-release planning activity throughout the sentence. The teams will progress referrals that have been made to Commissioned Rehabilitative Service suppliers, including fast tracking services for women serving short sentences. This provision is provided for Welsh women in English prisons as part of the Women’s Pathfinder Whole System Approach (WSA), with a WSA Service Caseworker based in HMP Eastwood Park and Women's Partnership Integration Coordinators aligned to each Probation Delivery Unit area in Wales, helping to support inter-agency connection and coordination across women's services.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women have been assisted by the Women’s Pathfinder Whole System Approach since its establishment in 2013.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
There was not a full Women’s Pathfinder Whole System Approach (WSA) service in place prior to 2019. Therefore, data does not exist for the number of women who have been assisted since 2013.
The commissioned Women’s Pathfinder WSA service in South Wales and Gwent went live in October 2019 and has assisted 4,117 women through referrals to the service from January 2020 to September 2023.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people have been held in prisons where pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been issued, broken down by (1) ethnicity, (2) religion, and (3) disability status, since 1 April 2019.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
PAVA is presently in 80 HMPPS prisons *, the below tables provide population figures across those 80 prisons firstly by ethnicity and secondly by religion. We are unable to provide this breakdown for disability as data is not available.
Note* The 80 prisons comprises 26 live sites which have issued to over 50% of their staff and the remainder have only issued to a small number of staff as part of an exceptional deployment.
Table 1: Prisoners held in prisons where pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been issued, by ethnicity, March 2019 - September 2021, in England and Wales | ||||||
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| 31-Mar-19 | 30-Sep-19 | 31-Mar-20 | 30-Sep-20 | 31-Mar-21 | 30-Sep-21 |
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All | 59,070 | 59,958 | 59,657 | 57,223 | 56,594 | 57,224 |
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Asian / Asian British | 4,599 | 4,642 | 4,635 | 4,464 | 4,534 | 4,709 |
Black / African / Caribbean / Black British | 7,786 | 7,964 | 7,839 | 7,615 | 7,541 | 7,494 |
Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups | 2,724 | 2,808 | 2,848 | 2,803 | 2,758 | 2,764 |
Other ethnic group | 918 | 916 | 932 | 888 | 853 | 858 |
White | 42,624 | 43,228 | 42,912 | 40,918 | 40,399 | 40,869 |
Not recorded | 240 | 236 | 320 | 376 | 314 | 354 |
Not stated | 179 | 164 | 171 | 159 | 195 | 176 |
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Table 2: Prisoners held in prisons where pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been issued, by religion, March 2019 - September 2021, in England and Wales | ||||||
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| 31-Mar-19 | 30-Sep-19 | 31-Mar-20 | 30-Sep-20 | 31-Mar-21 | 30-Sep-21 |
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All | 59,070 | 59,958 | 59,657 | 57,223 | 56,594 | 57,224 |
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Anglican | 9,751 | 9,750 | 9,522 | 8,866 | 8,391 | 8,223 |
Free Church | 505 | 535 | 547 | 559 | 539 | 531 |
Roman Catholic | 10,380 | 10,453 | 10,386 | 9,873 | 9,547 | 9,723 |
Other Christian | 7,741 | 7,828 | 7,584 | 7,302 | 7,350 | 7,570 |
Muslim | 9,612 | 9,920 | 10,096 | 9,953 | 10,202 | 10,424 |
Hindu | 263 | 271 | 271 | 237 | 247 | 256 |
Sikh | 431 | 399 | 406 | 365 | 344 | 349 |
Buddhist | 1,181 | 1,183 | 1,227 | 1,171 | 1,135 | 1,104 |
Jewish | 363 | 406 | 406 | 395 | 384 | 383 |
Other religious groups | 1,345 | 1,420 | 1,433 | 1,410 | 1,366 | 1,362 |
Other non-recognised | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
No religion | 17,381 | 17,702 | 17,676 | 16,879 | 16,843 | 17,120 |
Not recorded | 110 | 86 | 97 | 207 | 241 | 174 |
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Data sources and quality
The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Source: Prison NOMIS System
PQ HL3793 (Ministry of Justice; DASD-DES)
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on how many occasions pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been (1) drawn, or (2) drawn and deployed, in prisons since 1 April 2019, broken down by prison.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
We ensure all our prison officers are trained in how to use PAVA professionally, safely and lawfully and that it is only used when necessary and proportionate.
The data provided for this response is collected as internal management information and reflects the data held at the date of extraction. It is not quality assured in the same way as data prepared for publication and is subject to change.
Establishment* | Total | Drawn only | Drawn and deployed |
Aylesbury | 20 | 5 | 15 |
Bedford | 6 | 4 | 2 |
Belmarsh | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Berwyn | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Brinsford | 18 | 4 | 14 |
Bure | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Channings Wood | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Durham | 4 | 4 | 0 |
Elmley | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Featherstone | 6 | 4 | 2 |
Ford | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Garth | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Gartree | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Hindley | 13 | 5 | 8 |
Hull | 25 | 4 | 21 |
Humber | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Isis | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Manchester | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Moorland | 3 | 1 | 2 |
Norwich | 4 | 3 | 1 |
Nottingham | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Preston | 22 | 3 | 19 |
Ranby | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Risley | 42 | 15 | 27 |
Rochester | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Stafford | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Stocken | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Swaleside | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Swinfen Hall | 31 | 5 | 26 |
Wakefield | 7 | 6 | 1 |
Wandsworth | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Wayland | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Wealstun | 36 | 11 | 25 |
Whitemoor | 11 | 4 | 7 |
Winchester | 3 | 0 | 3 |
Woodhill | 3 | 1 | 2 |
Total | 279 | 92 | 187 |
Ford | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Garth | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Gartree | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Hindley | 13 | 5 | 8 |
Hull | 25 | 4 | 21 |
Humber | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Isis | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Manchester | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Moorland | 3 | 1 | 2 |
Norwich | 4 | 3 | 1 |
Nottingham | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Preston | 22 | 3 | 19 |
Ranby | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Risley | 42 | 15 | 27 |
Rochester | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Stafford | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Stocken | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Swaleside | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Swinfen Hall | 31 | 5 | 26 |
Wakefield | 7 | 6 | 1 |
Wandsworth | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Wayland | 2 | 2 | 0 |
Wealstun | 36 | 11 | 25 |
Whitemoor | 11 | 4 | 7 |
Winchester | 3 | 0 | 3 |
Woodhill | 3 | 1 | 2 |
Total | 279 | 92 | 187 |
Note* The above prisons comprise both those which have been through full rollout and deployed to over 50% of their eligible staff, and also prisons that have only issued as part of an exceptional deployment to a very small number of staff.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on how many occasions pelargonic acid vanillylamide (PAVA) incapacitant spray has been (1) drawn, or (2) drawn and deployed, in prisons since 1 April 2019, broken down by (a) ethnicity, (b) religion, and (c) disability status, of the prisoner.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
We ensure all our prison officers are trained in how to use PAVA professionally, safely and lawfully and that it is only used when necessary and proportionate.
The data provided for this response is collected as internal management information and reflects the data held at the date of extraction. It is not quality assured in the same way as data prepared for publication and is subject to change.
There haves been a total of 279 incidents involving PAVA since 1st April 2019, of those incidentsin 187 incidents PAVA was drawn and deployed and in 92 PAVA were as drawn only.
We are unable to provide this for disability as data for this is not available.
Ethnicity | Individuals Impacted | % | Drawn and Deployed | % | Drawn only | % |
Asian/Asian British | 33 | 6% | 28 | 7% | 5 | 3% |
Black/Black British | 182 | 35% | 147 | 39% | 35 | 24% |
Mixed | 57 | 11% | 38 | 10% | 19 | 13% |
Other ethnic group | 8 | 2% | 7 | 2% | 1 | 1% |
White | 241 | 46% | 159 | 42% | 82 | 57% |
Not recorded | 4 | 1% | 2 | 1% | 2 | 1% |
Total | 525 | 100% | 381 | 100% | 144 | 100% |
Religion | Individuals Impacted | % | Drawn and Deployed | % | Drawn only | % |
Buddhist | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
Christian | 198 | 38% | 131 | 34% | 67 | 46% |
Hindu | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
Jewish | 3 | 1% | 2 | 1% | 1 | 1% |
Muslim | 133 | 25% | 103 | 27% | 30 | 21% |
Sikh | 2 | 0% | 1 | 0% | 1 | 1% |
Other | 12 | 2% | 10 | 3% | 2 | 1% |
No religion | 151 | 29% | 112 | 29% | 39 | 27% |
Not recorded | 26 | 5% | 22 | 6% | 4 | 3% |
Total | 525 | 100% | 381 | 100% | 144 | 100% |
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 9 November 2020 (HL Deb, col 798) and the answer by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar on 6 July (HL Deb, col 1149), what work has been undertaken by the team of officials appointed to work on the royal commission on criminal justice since November 2020; and what work are they currently undertaking.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
Work to establish a Royal Commission was slowed down last year to prioritise the safe operation of the Criminal Justice System in response to the impact of Covid. As we continue to recover and build back the CJS, it is right that we now pause work on the Royal Commission to allow space for the recovery work before revisiting where a Commission might add most value. As work on the Commission has paused, officials have been redeployed to other roles in government.