Prisoner Releases in Error

Debate between Lord Timpson and Baroness Blower

Thursday 13th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that we are 100% dependent on the good will and ability of our staff. Our staff in the Prison and Probation Service have been heroic over the past few years, dealing with Covid, early releases and so on. We expect a lot of them and we need to improve their training. That is why we have the Enable project, which I worked on before I came into government. We also need to up our game on retention, because we do not want to lose experienced prison officers. One of the challenges I have set myself is that, before I was in government, I ran a company that was generally known as a good company to work for. I am determined to try to instil that sense of direction in the Prison and Probation Service.

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his characteristic frankness in the way that he is responding to these questions, for his commitment to make sure that the Prison Service works better than it has hitherto, and in particular for his positive remarks about prison staff. My question is about the checklist, which I welcomed when we asked questions about this last week. I assume that this is currently a paper checklist. Since we are rightly putting a reasonable amount of faith in this checklist, could we fast-track ensuring that it is in the right place in terms of digitisation? Everything else needs doing but the checklist could potentially be a game-changer.

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

My noble friend is right that the checklist is important. It may sound like a basic process but it is vital. At the moment, it is a combination of paperwork and computers. It is about inputting data, but one of the problems is that there are lots of opportunities to input the wrong data. For example, a number of prisoners arrive to us with different aliases. How do we manage that? It is a process of simplifying everything, simplifying the checklist, digitising as much as we can, using AI and other technology wherever possible, but also listening to the staff on the front line who are doing this job. This should not be a change driven by head office; it needs to be after careful thought and discussion with those who do the job day in, day out.

Prison Services: Insourcing

Debate between Lord Timpson and Baroness Blower

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

On behalf of my noble friend Lord Woodley, and with his permission, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in his name on the Order Paper.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Timpson) (Lab)]

This Government inherited a well-advanced plan to outsource contracts after a 2023 Cabinet Office assessment concluded that in-house capability was not sufficient to make insourcing viable. Insourcing would be reliant on retaining staff from current suppliers, but labour market constraints and public sector pay rates were not likely to be attractive. Outsource providers consistently exceed the targets set and outperform GFSL across the majority of KPIs. My job now is to ensure best value for money from these new contracts until 2031, when we will reconsider all options for future provision.

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that Answer. As a former trade union leader, I have seen time and again what privatisation does. The public end up paying a higher price for poorer-quality service while private profits soar. Prisons are no exception, with outsourced maintenance and education examples of a lack of value for public money. Retendering these contracts is, I believe, a mistake. Can my noble friend the Minister therefore instead make the case for the Prison Service to benefit from a wave of insourcing?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

The decision to outsource maintenance contracts was based on a detailed Cabinet Office assessment that concluded that the MoJ did not have the in-house capability to deliver the desired services, and that achieving this in the same timescale would have been costly and would not offer value for money to the taxpayer. Our intention is to look at the options of insourcing again in 2031. The majority of core teaching is delivered by public sector organisations and many smaller organisations, including voluntary sector providers, are delivering bespoke, locally commissioned courses. This diversity of expertise gives flexibility to meet the needs of prisoners, ensuring they have the skills they need to succeed. I will ensure that we continue to drive for innovation and improvements in the way we deliver education, including the role of digital, in achieving the best outcomes for prisoners.

Prisoner Release Checks

Debate between Lord Timpson and Baroness Blower

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for her comment. We need to make sure that we support our operational civil servants on the front line—whom we trust with a huge amount of responsibility—when they make a sensible and commercial decision such as this one.

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his response to this Statement. He has already said more than once from the Dispatch Box that any release in error is one too many. Can he say whether we have a timeframe for Dame Lynne Owens’s report so that we can think about when we might return to this? I hope that we will be able to see a significant decrease. The notion of the checklist, used extensively in medicine and increasingly in other places, is a thoroughly good idea, and I am sure that it will make a huge difference.

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

Dame Lynne Owens is going to start immediately. We hope to get the report back within eight weeks. She will be covering the facts of the case and will establish what went on. She will consider all our operational policies and whether they are fit for purpose, and make recommendations on how we can reduce the number of releases in error. Peers will have the opportunity to scrutinise the recommendations that she puts forward.

IPP Sentences

Debate between Lord Timpson and Baroness Blower

Monday 15th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

I thank the noble and learned Lord for his question, and for the work that he and the noble and learned Lord Thomas have done on this area. It is really important, and the focus has been very helpful. Already, the documents are clearer and more focused. Senior managers now oversee all recall decisions. From 3 November this year, we are extending the post-recall timeframes to improve planning and decision-making. That is thanks to Shirley Debono, who has helped us on that as well. The multidisciplinary progression panels are the way to do this, because we need to make sure that everybody who is in prison on an IPP sentence has hope, engages with the action plan, gets out and stays out.

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, can the Minister explain why IPP prisoners have to go to such lengths to prove that they are safe to leave custody before being released, while others in prison for similar offences do not? Does he agree that this difference in treatment is a further injustice against IPP prisoners, and that it is vital and urgent that we make progress in this area?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

The Parole Board are the experts in deciding who is safe to be released. The release tests that it has are robust and fair, but we need to make sure that when people are in front of it, they are in a really good position to be released and released safely.

Police, Prison and Probation Officers

Debate between Lord Timpson and Baroness Blower

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

I will pass that question on to the Northern Ireland Secretary responsible for legacy issues and write to the noble Baroness.

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are clearly taking all the issues across the criminal justice system very seriously, but does my noble friend agree that there is a slight risk that not everything will be dealt with entirely coherently? Does he agree with the many voices in this Chamber and beyond that what is really needed is a royal commission on the whole criminal justice system, as promised by the last Government but not delivered?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

We are a Government of action and I am a Minister of action, and I am already getting going. For me, it is really important that we have had the Independent Sentencing Review, which I hope we will be talking about shortly, and the Leveson review is ongoing. Those are significant reviews, and we will implement those reforms quickly.

Prison Maintenance: Insourcing

Debate between Lord Timpson and Baroness Blower

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

It is vital that, when people are in prison, they are in purposeful activity and not in their cells, so we are putting a lot of effort into getting more people out of their cells for longer. We have still got an awful lot more to do. We have too many prisons for the workshop and educational spaces that we have. The New Futures Network, with which I have been involved for many years, has been very successful in increasing the amount of people who get jobs on release from prison. Three years ago, 14% of people who left prison had a job after six months, and it is now over 30%.

[Baroness Blower (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend the Minister on the work that he is doing. I hope he agrees with me that powerful voices, including the National Audit Office, the Public Accounts Committee and the Justice Committee in the other place, have highlighted how costs have soared while conditions have crumbled in prisons since privatisation. I hope that the Minister will take very seriously both the value for money question and the urgent need to consider insourcing—that is, having public maintenance of prisons.

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

It is vital that the Government are led by the evidence and deliver value for money for the taxpayer. HMPPS has worked closely with the Cabinet Office to undertake a detailed assessment of prison maintenance requirements and how best to deliver them—I have even read all 175 pages of it. While they consider insourcing, the current evidence indicates that the private sector is best placed to provide a safe and decent estate, supported by effective maintenance that delivers value for money. I am continually monitoring performance and will keep my mind open to the best future options.