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Written Question
Prisoners on Remand
Tuesday 26th September 2023

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average time those who enter prison on remand to await trial and sentencing will spend in custody.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The methodology for calculating the amount of time spent on custodial remand is currently being reviewed and further clarification will be issued in due course.


Written Question
Life Imprisonment
Monday 18th September 2023

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the average time those currently serving mandatory life sentences will spend in prison.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Sentencing is entirely a matter for our independent judiciary. Release from mandatory life sentences is determined by the Parole Board, when the Board is satisfied that detaining the offender is no longer necessary for the protection of the public.

While we do not have an estimate of the average time those currently in prison on mandatory life sentences will serve, we do publish average time served, based on release data, on an annual basis. Table below.

Mandatory life

Mean time served (years)

2002

14

2003

15

2004

14

2005

14

2006

14

2007

16

2008

16

2009

17

2010

16

2011

16

2012

16

2013

17

2014

17

2015(1)

17

2016

16

2017

17

2018

17

2019

18

2020

17

2021

17

2022

18

(1) Due to improvements in IT systems, the 2015 prison admissions data is now taken from a different source and, for statistical reporting purposes only, are produced using a different method. The 2015 figures from both the old and new systems have been presented to aid comparison.


Written Question
Prison Advice and Care Trust
Monday 18th September 2023

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the work conducted by the Prison Advice and Care Trust in England and Wales.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

H.M. Prison & Probation Service holds both contracts and grants with the Prison Advice and Care Trust (Pact) for work they undertake in prisons in England and Wales. Whilst no formal assessment of the work completed by Pact has been undertaken, all contracts and grants are awarded following open and fair competition. Those tendering for contracts or applying for grants (including Pact) are thoroughly assessed against the published criteria including the completion of due diligence checks prior to the awarding of any contract or grant.


Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Temporary Accommodation
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relationship, if any, of the rate of reoffending with the availability of a place for prisoners to stay upon release.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The number of prison leavers housed upon release from prison in 2021-22 was 43,521 and this represents 86.8% of the total number of prison leavers for the period where the destination is known*. This is an improvement of approximately 6.6 percentage points on 2019-20.

*Cases are not included when the accommodation status is unknown (for a reason other than awaiting assessment) or provided by the Home Office Immigration Enforcement Service.

Prison leavers without settled accommodation are 50% more likely to reoffend than those who have stable accommodation. A settled place to live is key to reducing reoffending, cutting crime and protecting the public. Probation practitioners are better able to robustly supervise an offender and protect the public when they know where they are living. The government is committed to end rough sleeping and tackling offender homelessness. Our Prisons Strategy White Paper set out our plans to reduce reoffending, including improving prison leavers’ access to accommodation. This includes expanding nationally the transitional Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) to all probation regions, so that prison leavers who would otherwise be at risk of homelessness, can access temporary accommodation for up to 12 weeks.


Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Temporary Accommodation
Thursday 30th March 2023

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of prisoners who, on the day of their release, have a bed to go to that night; and what percentage of those released that represents.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The number of prison leavers housed upon release from prison in 2021-22 was 43,521 and this represents 86.8% of the total number of prison leavers for the period where the destination is known*. This is an improvement of approximately 6.6 percentage points on 2019-20.

*Cases are not included when the accommodation status is unknown (for a reason other than awaiting assessment) or provided by the Home Office Immigration Enforcement Service.

Prison leavers without settled accommodation are 50% more likely to reoffend than those who have stable accommodation. A settled place to live is key to reducing reoffending, cutting crime and protecting the public. Probation practitioners are better able to robustly supervise an offender and protect the public when they know where they are living. The government is committed to end rough sleeping and tackling offender homelessness. Our Prisons Strategy White Paper set out our plans to reduce reoffending, including improving prison leavers’ access to accommodation. This includes expanding nationally the transitional Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) to all probation regions, so that prison leavers who would otherwise be at risk of homelessness, can access temporary accommodation for up to 12 weeks.


Written Question
Neurodiversity: Prisoners
Monday 6th March 2023

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of prisoners who have neurodivergent conditions; and what plans they have, if any, to introduce a common screening system for these conditions throughout the criminal justice system.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

In December 2020 the Ministry of Justice commissioned the Justice Inspectorates to conduct ‘An Evidence Review of Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System’. The Evidence Review Report, published July 2021, suggests that potentially half of the adult prison population has some form of neurodivergence.

Currently, on prison reception, prisoners are screened to identify neurodivergent need, with 22/23 figures suggesting that 31% of prisoners have some form of neurodivergent need. Full diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder, disability or cognitive impairment would be conducted by Healthcare in Prison, which is delivered by the National Health Service England.

On 25 January 2023 the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published a six-month update to the Cross-Government Neurodiversity Action Plan. The six-month update details agreement from all criminal justice agencies to adopt a needs identification approach to screening for neurodivergence. Instead of a focus on diagnostic criteria, criminal justice agencies should seek to identify what reasonable adjustments can be made to support neurodivergent people at each stage of the process and this information should be shared between agencies. However, whilst consistency of approach is necessary, it would be inappropriate to use a single tool universally across all agencies because the time available to identify an individual’s needs and the types of reasonable adjustment available will vary at every stage of the system.


Written Question
Prison Accommodation
Wednesday 21st September 2022

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average time that (1) adult prisoners, and (2) young offenders, are locked in their cells each day.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

(1) The information requested for adult prisoners is not held by the Ministry of Justice, as it would require the detailed daily monitoring of out of cell activity of each individual prisoner in each prison establishment. We undertake regular monitoring of regime levels in prisons and formally account for all time spent out of cell engaged in regime activities.

There is no current central instruction prescribing the amount of time prisoners should spend out of their cells, however, there is a clear commitment to the delivery and performance management of time spent in purposeful activity. Governors have the flexibility to deliver balanced regimes that maintain an appropriate level of time out of cell on a range of activities such as education and employment which meet the needs of the establishment’s population with a heavy focus on reducing reoffending. This is alongside basic access to time in the open air and domestic services such showers.

We do see impact on time spent out of cell that can result from staffing availability and from operational incidents.

This government has committed to prison regime reform in the Prison Strategy White Paper and will set clearer stands for time spent in prison. A new Purposeful Activity performance measure has been introduced for the 2022/23 performance period which will drive delivery. Additional measures are in place for attendance at work, education, interventions and services. These will over time give more detailed information than that currently available.

(2) While we do not collect information on time during which young people are locked in their rooms, information is held regarding time spent out of room. In July 2022, the average time out of room offered in Youth Offender Institutions was 5 hours 50 minutes: of that, an average of 5 hours 15 minutes was taken.


Written Question
Reoffenders: Sentencing
Tuesday 20th September 2022

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the comparative effectiveness of (1) short prison sentences, and (2) community sentences, in reducing and preventing re-offending.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The overall proven reoffending rate has broadly decreased over the past ten years from 30.9% in 2009/2010 to 25.6% in 2019/20 (although the latest figures have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic).

Evidence suggests that community sentences, in certain circumstances, are more effective in reducing reoffending than short custodial sentences. A MoJ 2019 study, attached, found that the one-year reoffending rate(1) following short term custodial sentences of less than 12 months was higher than if a community sentence had instead been given (by 4 percentage points).

Sentencing in individual cases is wholly a matter for our independent courts. Sentencers should continue to have the option of imposing a short custodial sentence where appropriate. However, custody should be a last resort and we recognise that, if we are to break the cycle of re-offending, solutions will often lie in robust and effective community sentences.

1 One-year reoffending rate means the percentage of offenders, in any cohort, who were released from custody, or received a non-custodial conviction or a caution, and then went on to commit a subsequent proven offence within a 12 month follow up period (plus a six-month waiting period).


Written Question
Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
Tuesday 20th September 2022

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the turnover of prison officers in each of the last five years, and (2) their ability to recruit prison officers needed to staff any planned new prisons.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The leaving rate for prisons officers can be accessed online through HMPPS workforce quarterly, the most recent of which was for June 2022. The table below contains the leaving rate for Band 3-5 Prison officers in each of past five years:

Year

Leaving Rate (%)[1]

1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018

10.3

1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019

11.5

1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020

12.2

1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021

9.1

1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022

14.5

1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022

15.3

Source: HMPPS Workforce Quarterly, June 2022

[1] Leaving rate denotes the percentage of staff with a permanent contract of employment who left HMPPS, including individuals who have retired early, but excluding staff who left due to voluntary early departure schemes and redundancy (VEDSR).

We are addressing recent increases in leaving rates via dedicated recruitment and retention efforts across the board. We are also working to improve the joining experience of new employees, via increased clarity in marketing materials and increased support for new joiners via Apprenticeship coaches and New Colleague Mentors (since April 2022).

We hope that the significant rises in pay for prison staff will also help to reduce leaving rates, and we are continuing to use localised market supplements to increase prison officer pay in 18 sites.

We are committed to providing the high-quality prison places that are needed over the coming years and ensuring that they are adequately resourced and supported by sufficient prison officer staffing levels, as well as other key members of the workforce such as teachers, instructors, chaplaincy and probation staff.

The staffing requirements for new establishments continue to be assessed and factored into vacancies up to 18 months in advance in order to ensure we recruit on time and build up the experience needed to deliver safe and secure regimes


Written Question
Prisons: Crimes of Violence
Tuesday 20th September 2022

Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the annual number of reported assaults on (1) prisoners, and (2) prison staff, in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Department publishes statistics on deaths, self-harm and assaults in prison custody in England and Wales in the quarterly Safety in Custody statistics available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics. The table below shows the requested data, broken down by financial year, from 2012-13 to 2021-22:

Financial Year

Total Number of Assaults: Prisoner on Prisoner (1,2,3,4,6)

Total Number of Assaults: Prisoner on Prison Staff (1,2,3,5,6)

2012-13

11,173

2,964

2013-14

11,651

3,372

2014-15

12,953

3,887

2015-16

16,731

5,409

2016-17

19,360

7,159

2017-18

22,374

9,003

2018-19

22,821

9,630

2019-20

20,632

9,020

2020-21

10,977

7,011

2021-22

12,773

7,599

(1) Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts

(2) Figures do not include incidents at Medway STC. For more information on Secure Training Centres, please see Youth justice annual statistics at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-annual-statistics

(3) Figures from April 2018 onwards exclude incidents occurring within the youth estate. The youth estate includes incidents occurring within Cookham Wood, Werrington and Wetherby, as well as the youth wing at Feltham and Parc. Prior to April 2018 these figures were collected via manual returns, so it is not possible to split out all youth estate incidents up to March 2018. Figures for incidents occurring within the youth estate are published within the ‘Safety in the children and young people secure estate’ statistics bulletin via the following link - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/safety-in-the-youth-secure-estate-bulletin

(4) Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults are a subset of all assault incidents

(5) Assaults on staff are a subset of all assault incidents

(6) The sum of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and assaults on staff may not equal the total number of assaults because staff may be assaulted in a prisoner-on-prisoner assault incident and other assault incidents may involve other people, e.g. visitors

The Prisons Strategy White Paper set out how we will improve safety and security in our prisons. Prison staff carry out a vital role in protecting the public and we will do all we can to protect them and prisoners from violence.