Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 6 November (HL1962), how much of the financial benefits delivered by BlueLight Commercial since its foundation are attributable to procurement of (1) goods such as police uniforms and equipment and (2) services such as consultancy and professional advice.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

Further to the answer I gave on 6 November (HL1962), of the £287 million of estimated financial benefits BlueLight Commercial have worked to deliver within policing in England and Wales since 2020/21, an estimated £168 million are attributable to goods and £93m are attributable to services.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 1 November (HL1776), which is the force currently being onboarded to the Single Online Home system, and which are the two remaining forces not using the system.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

At 14 November 2024, Lancashire Constabulary is currently being onboarded to the Single Online Home platform. Avon and Somerset Police and West Yorkshire Police are not currently using the platform. Future onboarding plans are under consideration.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much has been spent on setting up and maintaining BlueLight Commercial since its foundation.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

Between 2020/21 and 2024/25 BlueLight Commercial has been funded by the Home Office to provide commercial expertise and assistance to policing to identify and make efficiency savings. The Home Office has provided up to £26.4m in funding to Bluelight Commercial during that time.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 12 November (HL2136), what plans they have to link the Single Online Home system directly to police forces' case management systems so that information does not need to be manually transferred between the two.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office funds the police-led Digital Public Contact programme to develop and deliver a range of policing public contact services including the Strategic Integration Hub (i-Hub) which links the Single Online Home platform to forces’ record management systems and reduces the requirement for manual transfer of information.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 12 November (HL2136), what plans they have to upgrade the Single Online Home system to allow it to recognise a person returning to report a subsequent incident by basic information, such as their name and address alone, rather than requiring their full personal information each time a report is made.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office is funding the police-led Digital Public Contact Programme to deliver pilots which enable a member of the public to have a secure log-in and saved details when reporting crimes.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 12 November (HL2136), what plans they have to expand the functionality of the Single Online Home system, for example by allowing the reporting of suspicious behaviour rather than just potential crimes.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

Members of the public can report suspicious behaviour to local forces through the ‘Tell us about’ tab within Police.UK websites on the Single Online Home platform.

Additionally, the StreetSafe tool, also accessed via Police.uk force websites, allows the public to report where they do not feel safe for environmental or behavioural reasons. This enables forces to build an evidence base of where communities have suspicions or feel unsafe for a variety of reasons.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the annual cost of a community order with (1) a drug rehabilitation requirement, (2) a mental health treatment requirement, (3) an alcohol treatment requirement, (4) an unpaid work requirement, and (5) a curfew requirement.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We do not hold the information in the format requested. To produce and quality assure the information requested would be of disproportionate cost.

The average cost to the Probation Service in 2023-24 of an additional person on the probation licence caseload (including probation pre-release costs) was estimated at c.£4,500 compared with c.£3,150 for an additional person on the probation court order caseload (community orders and suspended sentence orders). This can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65537c7d50475b000dc5b590/Sentencing_Bill_-_IA_-_HDC.pdf.

These costs cover requirements such as unpaid work as well as sentence management time. They do not, however, include treatment costs for drug rehabilitation requirements, mental health requirements, alcohol treatment requirements and do not include curfew costs. Note that the costs presented exclude some costs to the Ministry of Justice, such as costs not directly tied to changes in probation caseload and Ministry of Justice HQ costs. Costs of individuals will vary considerably based on a number of factors including risk levels, requirements and needs.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the annual cost of post-sentence supervision of an individual.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We do not hold the requested information on the annual cost of post sentence supervision.

The average cost to the Probation Service in 2023-24 of an additional person on the probation licence caseload (including probation pre-release costs) was estimated at c.£4,500 compared with c.£3,150 for an additional person on the probation court order caseload (community orders and suspended sentence orders). This can be found through the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65537c7d50475b000dc5b590/Sentencing_Bill_-_IA_-_HDC.pdf.

Note that the costs presented exclude some costs to the Ministry of Justice, such as costs not directly tied to changes in probation caseload and Ministry of Justice HQ costs. Costs of individuals will vary considerably based on a number of factors including risk levels, requirements and needs

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many women sentenced in the Intensive Supervision Court in Birmingham received a community order with (1) a drug rehabilitation requirement, (2) a mental health treatment requirement, (3) an alcohol treatment requirement, (4) an unpaid work requirement, and (5) a curfew requirement, since June 2023.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Since the launch of the Birmingham Intensive Supervision Court in June 2023 through to the end of February 2025, a total of 77 women have been sentenced to a community order. The breakdown of the attached requirements are as follows:

(1) a drug rehabilitation requirement – 38 (49%)

(2) a mental health treatment requirement – 62 (81%)

(3) an alcohol treatment requirement – 17 (22%)

(4) an unpaid work requirement – less that 5 (less than 6%)

(5) a curfew requirement – less than 5 (less than 6%)

Note: counts of less than 5 have been suppressed for privacy reasons.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many women have been sentenced in the Intensive Supervision Court in Birmingham since June 2023; and how many received (1) community orders, and (2) suspended sentence orders.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Since the launch of the Birmingham Intensive Supervision Court in June 2023 through to February 2025, 96 women have been sentenced under the Birmingham Intensive Supervision Court. 77 women (80%) were sentenced to a Community Order and 19 women (20%) were sentenced to a Suspended Sentence Order.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average number of requirements attached to a community order given to a woman sentenced in the Intensive Supervision Court in Birmingham since June 2023.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Since the launch of the Birmingham Intensive Supervision Court in June 2023 through to the end of February 2025, the average number of requirements attached to a community order under the Birmingham Women’s Intensive Supervision Court has been three requirements per order.