Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of, and what action they are taking to reduce, overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In prisons where we have crowding in place, a rigorous cell certification process is undertaken that ensures the use of cells is subject to formal assessment of safety and decency.
We continue to pursue the package of longer-term measures the Lord Chancellor announced on 16 October 2023 to reform the justice system and continue to address the prison capacity challenges. The measures include: the extension of the Early Removal Scheme, introducing a presumption to suspend sentences of 12 months or less, curtailing the licence period for IPP sentences and extending the use of Home Detention Curfew. On 11 March, the Lord Chancellor announced the next steps in our plan, to allow us to go further and faster in removing foreign national offenders (FNOs). This includes expediting prisoner transfers with our priority partners such as Albania, and the creation of a new taskforce across the Home Office and Ministry of Justice to change the way we process FNO cases radically.
To meet pressing demand, we are building c.20,000 modern, rehabilitative prison places – the biggest prison build programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through our two new 1,700 places prisons, HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way, and c.590 Rapid Deployment Cells across 11 sites. By the end of 2025, we are on track to have delivered around 10,000 places in total.
The Government will continue to monitor the evolving situation with demand for prison places carefully, 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: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to amend legislation to help (1) child trust fund beneficiaries who do not have the capacity to make their own financial decisions, and (2) the families of those beneficiaries, to access their savings, without needing to apply to the Court of Protection for a financial deputyship; and what estimate they have made of the number of child trust funds that belong to young people in this category.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Following a public consultation, the Government concluded it would not seek to amend legislation in this area but would instead seek to address issues in the existing system whilst also continuing the appropriate protections and safeguards for vulnerable individuals.
A programme of work is already underway to streamline and simplify the property and affairs application process in the Court of Protection.
The Government does not collect figures on the number of Child Trust Funds held by individuals who lack mental capacity.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current backlog of cases in (1) Magistrates Courts in England and (2) the Crown Court; and, in each case, (a) what is the average reduction in the backlog each month, and (b) how long it will take to clear the backlog at the current rate of progress.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The table below shows the latest published data on the outstanding cases in the Crown Court and Magistrates’ Court, and the current rate of change. The data on outstanding cases can be found on the criminal court statistics page.
Outstanding cases | Crown Court | Magistrates’ Court |
Q3 2021 | 59,928 | 349,277 |
Q2 2021 | 60,812 | 362,842 |
For further data on disposals including by each Crown Court and by region in the Magistrates’ Court please see the Crown Court cases received, disposed and outstanding tool and the Magistrates' Court cases received, disposed and outstanding tool available on the Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly Web Address (Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2021).
The Spending Review will provide an extra £477 million for the criminal justice system over the next three years to help reduce the backlog.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time for cases to come to trial in England; and what action they are taking to speed up the process.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Data relating to the waiting time in weeks for cases at the Crown Court in England and Wales can be found in Tables C6 (by case type), C7 (by plea) and C8 (by remand status) of the published National Statistics series ‘Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly’ (latest to June 2020) https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics
Waiting times for England alone require a further breakdown from the published data and are provided in the table attached with this response.
On Monday 7 September, the Crime Recovery Plan was published which sets out our comprehensive plan to tackle the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the justice system by boosting capacity across criminal courts.
As one of the first among other comparable jurisdictions globally to resume jury trials, our Crown Courts are currently listing over 200 jury trials and conducting thousands of other hearings every week. The magistrates’ courts have been completing more cases than they receive, dealing with over 21,000 cases each week and tackling the backlog.
We have also installed plexiglass screens into over 200 courtrooms and over 100 jury retiring rooms enabling us to safely open 255 Crown Court rooms for jury trials, roughly the number that were hearing jury trials before Covid.
We’re also investing record amounts - the biggest single investment in court estate maintenance for more than 20 years – and have unlocked vital capacity by opening 16 Nightingale Courts to provide 29 additional court rooms.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review their decision to reject Reading Council’s bid to convert HM Prison Reading into an art centre; and what consideration they gave to the preservation of the building as an arts venue.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Marketing of the former prison at Reading has completed and a preferred bidder selected. We have no plans to review our decision not to progress with any of the other bids for the site. A range of factors were considered in assessing which bid represented the best value for the department and the taxpayer.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many magistrates there are currently in England and Wales; how many more magistrates are needed in England and Wales; and what are their plans to (1) recruit more magistrates, and (2) ensure equality of access to justice throughout England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
There are currently 15,003 magistrates in England and Wales.
We work with the judiciary to analyse both current and future judicial supply and demand across our courts and tribunals, factoring in planned recruitment, retirements and other departures.
As of 1 April 2018 there were 15,003 magistrates in England and Wales. For the year 2018/19, 1,018 people will have been recommended for appointment however this figure is unlikely to sustain the national complement of magistrates at the 1 April level. We are therefore increasing recruitment activity and are developing a three-year strategy, focusing on increasing diversity and social mobility, to support the recruitment of sufficient numbers to manage workloads.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many money laundering cases have been brought to trial in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The table below sets out the number of prosecutions and convictions for money laundering offences between 2007 and 2017.
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| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
Money Laundering |
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Prosecutions | 2,293 | 1,812 | 2,440 | 2,719 | 2,682 | 2,505 | 2,349 | 2,095 | 2,307 | 1,998 | 1,906 |
Convictions | 1,336 | 1,275 | 1,410 | 1,581 | 1,519 | 1,422 | 1,269 | 1,143 | 1,336 | 1,435 | 1,347 |
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 7 June (HL8219), how many more prison officers are currently needed in the UK; how they plan to recruit the necessary prison officers; and what success the Unlocked programme has had in contributing to increasing recruitment.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
As part of the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper published in November 2016, the Government committed to an increase of 2,500 Prison Officers by the end of 2018.
Between the end of October 2016 (the closest data point in time to when the commitment was made) and the end of March 2018, the number of Band 3 to 5 prison officers (headcount) increased from 18,713 to 21,824; a net increase of 3,111.
It is anticipated that 90 percent of the new recruits will be on the landings by the summer and all of them will be operational by the end of the year.
The first cohort of 52 graduates from the Unlocked scheme, which encourages the brightest graduates to consider a career in HMPPS, entered the HMPPS workforce in August last year – 15% higher than had been anticipated. Due to the popularity of the programme, up to 115 candidates will be recruited for the 2018 cohort. They are due to join the service in July 2018.
Under the Prison Safety and Reform agenda, Governors have been given greater responsibility for workforce planning and determining their local organisational structure. This includes the number of officers they employ and Governors can implement changes to shift arrangements and resource deployment providing they remain within the agreed funding envelope.
This empowerment of the Governor’s position is intended to enable them to make best use of resources to support prison safety and develop strategies to reduce reoffending. HMPPS does not set workforce planning arrangements for Scotland and Northern Ireland, as this is a matter for devolved Governments.
The recruitment drive continues and will continue until we reach required levels across the prison estate, with the same urgency that has secured this remarkable influx of new staff.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many more prison officers are currently needed in the UK; how they plan to recruit the necessary prison officers; and what success the Unlocked programme has had in contributing to increasing recruitment.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
As part of the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper published in November 2016, the Government committed to an increase of 2,500 Prison Officers by the end of 2018.
Between the end of October 2016 (the closest data point in time to when the commitment was made) and the end of March 2018, the number of Band 3 to 5 prison officers (headcount) increased from 18,713 to 21,824; a net increase of 3,111.
It is anticipated that 90 per cent of the new recruits will be on the landings by the summer and all of them will be operational by the end of the year.
The first cohort of 52 graduates from the Unlocked scheme, which encourages the brightest graduates to consider a career in HMPPS, entered the HMPPS workforce in August last year – 15% higher than had been anticipated. Due to the popularity of the programme, up to 115 candidates will be recruited for the 2018 cohort. They are due to join the service in July 2018.”
Under the Prison Safety and Reform agenda, Governors have been given greater responsibility for workforce planning and determining their local organisational structure. This includes the number of officers they employ and Governors can implement changes to shift arrangements and resource deployment providing they remain within the agreed funding envelope.
This empowerment of the Governor’s position is intended to enable them to make best use of resources to support prison safety and develop strategies to reduce reoffending. HMPPS does not set workforce planning arrangements for Scotland and Northern Ireland, as this is a matter for devolved Governments.
The recruitment drive continues across the prison estate, with the same urgency that has secured this remarkable influx of new staff.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what response, if any, they have made to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in the light of his comments that moves to replace the Human Rights Act 1998 would set a very bad example for the rest of the world.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Government has made no formal response to these comments. The UK has a proud tradition of respect for human rights which long pre-dates the Human Rights Act 1998. Our Bill will protect fundamental human rights, but also prevent their abuse and restore some common sense to the system. The Government will fully consult on our proposals before introducing legislation and we will set out our proposals in due course.