Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to undertake a review of the Public Duty Costs Allowance.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA) has a limit of £115,000 per year. The limit is reviewed annually and at the start of each Parliament; the government is currently in the process of reviewing the limit and will publish the outcome in due course.
There are no current plans to review the PDCA more widely.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether visits to the Republican Convention by former Prime Ministers could qualify for expenditure under the Public Duty Costs Allowance; and what further information they can provide on claims made under the scheme.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Public Duty Cost Allowance (PDCA) is not paid to support private duties, nor is it used for security purposes.
Further details about the PDCA are on gov.uk at the following web link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-duty-cost-allowance.
Annual payments are published in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts. The most recent report is available on gov.uk at the following web link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2022-23.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women are currently being held in prison for non-violent offences; and what proportion of female prisoners have children who have been taken into care as a result of their custody.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Please find below a breakdown of the sentenced female prison population by main offence group, as of the latest published population snapshot.
Table 1: Sentenced female prison population by main offence group, as at 31 March 2024
All offences | 2,773 |
Violence against the person | 1,019 |
Sexual offences | 133 |
Robbery | 240 |
Theft offences | 393 |
Criminal damage and arson | 67 |
Drug offences | 394 |
Possession of weapons | 61 |
Public order offences | 55 |
Miscellaneous crimes against society | 114 |
Fraud offences | 102 |
Summary non-motoring | 138 |
Summary motoring | 5 |
Offence not recorded | 52 |
We have provided a table for the sentenced female population, but information on the female remand population [split by 'untried' and 'convicted unsentenced'] by offence group this can be found here: Prison-population-31-Mar-2024.ods (live.com).
We do not hold information on the number of children taken into care as a result of maternal imprisonment, however we are working to improve our understanding of the impact of maternal imprisonment on children. For example, on 18 July 2024 we published analysis looking into the number of parents in prison with children and the number of children with parents in prison. This analysis indicated that 55% of women in prison have children under 18 but did not show how many of these women had their children living with them before going to prison. We are also piloting prison-based children’s social workers in women’s prisons that support women with family court proceedings, parental rights and maintaining or strengthening family ties.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the adult population were held in prison on 1 January; whether they have carried out any comparison with other European countries; and, if so, what European countries they have benchmarked those figures against.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The adult prison population in England and Wales as of 31 December 2023 was 87,227. It is not possible to robustly estimate the proportion of the adult population of England and Wales this represented at that time, because population estimates beyond mid-2023 have not yet been published by the Office for National Statistics.
The Department and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service routinely monitor, and seek to learn from prison systems in other jurisdictions. This can include, among other areas, monitoring prison population data. We do not specifically benchmark our population data against any other jurisdictions.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the annual cost of each prisoner held in prison.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
An average cost per prisoner, cost per prison place and overall prison unit cost for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales are routinely published by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year on the gov.uk website.
The overall average annual cost for keeping an individual in a prison is £51,108, which is taken from the latest published Prison Unit Cost statistics for 2022-23.
The Ministry of Justice expects the 2023-24 Prison Unit Cost statistics to be published in December 2024, once the 2023-24 HMPPS Annual Report & Accounts are published.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people currently held in prison are serving sentences of one year or less.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As at 30 June 2024, prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales held 3,277 male and female prisoners serving sentences of one year or less.
Note:
The figure presented includes fine defaulters.
Data sources and quality
The figures in this table 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
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many UK citizens are currently held in prison; and how many were held on 1 January in each of the past ten years up to 1 January 2024.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As of 31 March 2024, the latest date for which we have figures, 76,869 British nationals were held in prison in England and Wales. The Ministry of Justice does not disaggregate data for Northern Ireland citizens. Data for 1 January in each of the past ten years up to 1 January 2024 are included in the attached table.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made any assessment of the proportion of people held in prisons with significant difficulties with literacy.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The literacy and numeracy skills of all prisoners are assessed on entry to custody. Data on education participation in prison are published annually as official statistics in the Prison Education Statistics and Accredited Programmes in Custody publication. In 2022-23, prisoners took a total of 58,907 English initial assessments. 65 per cent of those prisoners in 2022-23 were at Entry Levels 1-3 in English (i.e., below the lowest GCSE grade).
All prisons now have a reading strategy, and we have published a national Reading Framework to support prisons in maintaining their strategy. HMPPS has introduced a Literacy Innovation Fund, to pilot two specialist reading and literacy projects across fifteen prisons, to offer education to prisoners at the lowest reading level. Literacy provision is a significant element of the core education offer, with all prisons offering functional skills qualifications in Literacy from Entry Level to Level 2.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the need to simplify voter identification requirements after the local elections on 2 May.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer my Noble Lord to the answer given to Question UIN 24793 on 13 May 2024.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of voter identification requirements on voter turnout at the local elections on 2 May.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
I refer my Noble Lord to the answer given to Question UIN 24793 on 13 May 2024.