Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using National Insurance numbers to proactively identify veterans in the criminal justice system in order to provide them with appropriate support.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There is no mechanism for identifying former Armed Forces personnel or any other category of individuals through National Insurance numbers. Those eligible are issued a National Insurance number for the administration of Social Security Benefits, National Insurance and tax only.
However, all newly received prisoners are asked if they have previously served in the Armed Forces as part of the screening process at reception. The Probation Service also uses a self-declaration form to identify former Armed Forces personnel.
Those who choose to report as former members of the Armed Forces are given access to specialist support that is available to them via the armed forces and military charities that work in prisons and in the community.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of veterans therapists' ability to access veteran inmates in Wales to provide PTSD treatment.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Healthcare in Wales is devolved to the Welsh Government, with seven Local Health Boards responsible for the planning and delivery of health services (including mental health therapy, such as PTSD) in prisons across Wales.
A strong partnership exists between HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) in Wales, the Welsh Government and Public Health Wales, underpinned by a 2019 agreement. Regular strategic meetings and local partnership boards ensure that prisoners can access appropriate interventions, including mental health support, through coordinated efforts between prison services and healthcare providers.
HMPPS delivers a range of initiatives to support veterans including via third sector organisations, who provide a prison in-reach service to veterans whilst in custody.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will list the number of care experienced prisoners with home addresses in Wales that were in prison in (a) Wales and (b) England by the local authority of their home address in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are committed to addressing the disproportionate number of care-experienced prisoners in England and Wales, both by improving support for people with care experience while in the criminal justice system, and by working with colleagues across government to reduce the number of people with care experience who enter the criminal justice system.
Whilst we are working to improve data, our records are primarily based on children and adults self-reporting care experience and there are many reasons why people may choose not to disclose this information. We are therefore unable to provide reliable figures to answer these questions.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will list the number of care experienced prisoners in each (a) prison and (b) young offender institution in (i) Wales and (ii) England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are committed to addressing the disproportionate number of care-experienced prisoners in England and Wales, both by improving support for people with care experience while in the criminal justice system, and by working with colleagues across government to reduce the number of people with care experience who enter the criminal justice system.
Whilst we are working to improve data, our records are primarily based on children and adults self-reporting care experience and there are many reasons why people may choose not to disclose this information. We are therefore unable to provide reliable figures to answer these questions.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of care experienced children and young adults within the criminal justice system in Wales.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are committed to addressing the disproportionate number of care-experienced prisoners in England and Wales, both by improving support for people with care experience while in the criminal justice system, and by working with colleagues across government to reduce the number of people with care experience who enter the criminal justice system.
Whilst we are working to improve data, our records are primarily based on children and adults self-reporting care experience and there are many reasons why people may choose not to disclose this information. We are therefore unable to provide reliable figures to answer these questions.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what categories of information are routinely collected by prisons on prisoners.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Prisons collect a wide range of information. The main categories are: personal and demographic; legal and custodial; health and wellbeing; risk and behavioural assessments; education and employment; rehabilitation and progress monitoring; and daily activities and privileges.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to her Department's consultation on reforming Local Justice Areas, what assessment has she made of the adequacy of her Department's adherence to the statutory duty to provide a Welsh language impact assessment.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice produced a Welsh language impact assessment during consultation (published on 16 April 2025, shortly after the consultation’s launch), and has committed to publishing a further assessment alongside the finalised proposals, once these are determined.
The existing assessment is available at section 10 of the Equalities Statement: LJA Consultation Equalities Statement.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many probation service staff providing pre-sentencing report delivery were in employment for courts in (a) England and (b) Wales in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of Probation Officers and Probation Services Officers (FTE) working in the Courts internal function as of December of each year since 2017:
| England | Wales | Total |
2017 | 988.0 | 48.8 | 1,036.8 |
2018 | 970.4 | 56.4 | 1026.9 |
2019 | 885.7 | 54.3 | 940.0 |
2020 | 863.6 | 53.7 | 917.3 |
2021 | 894.7 | 52.4 | 947.1 |
2022 | 894.4 | 56.5 | 950.9 |
2023 | 956.1 | 64.0 | 1,020.1 |
2024 | 1,060.7 | 79.7 | 1,140.4 |
The above table details, from internal management information, the FTE Probation Officers and Probation Services Officers who were recorded as working in the Courts internal function in December of each year.
Data prior to 2017 is not easily obtainable or reliable as it would come from a different data source. It would not be reliable to provide a trend between the two data sources.
Staff in this internal function would have spent some (but not necessarily all) of their time delivering Pre-Sentence Reports. Staff are also required to carry out other forms of work in court e.g. triaging court lists and producing other types of reports.
There are some other staff who may carry out Pre-Sentence Reports in addition to those in the table (sessional staff and some staff from the Offender Management internal function). These staff would carry out Pre-Sentence Reports on an ad-hoc basis and their contribution would not be quantifiable.
Any change year-on-year does not necessarily mean a change in funding for these staff and could reflect of how many staff were in post and available to carry out this work.
Administrative or managerial staff are not included in these figures, although these staff play an important role in supporting PO and PSO colleagues with the delivery of Pre-Sentence Reports.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) standard delivery, (b) fast delivery, and (c) oral pre-sentence reports were produced in (i) Wales and (ii) England in 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Probation Service is responsible for producing pre-sentence reports (PSRs) where they have been requested by the Court. The PSR assesses the offender’s behaviour, the risk they pose, and recommend sentencing options tailored to the individual. The report can suggest community sentences and specific requirements like treatment programmes. Ultimately, the PSR provides recommendations to the Court, but the final decision rests with the judge.
The following table shows the number of PSRs prepared by the Probation Service and presented to the criminal courts in England and Wales between January 2024 and December 2024.
Magistrates' and Crown Courts | England | Wales | Total |
Total pre-sentence court reports (PSR) | 91,857 | 7,149 | 99,006 |
Standard PSR | 4,838 | 748 | 5,586 |
Fast Delivery PSR written | 71,157 | 4,376 | 75,533 |
Fast Delivery PSR oral | 15,862 | 2,025 | 17,887 |
Note, PSR figures by region are published every April as part of the Offender Management Statistics quarterly bulletin. Please also note that the data pipeline used to compile the figures has been updated. This change was introduced for the 2024 figures. More details can be found in the 'Probation data process transition' section of Chapter 6 of the publication, available here: Offender management statistics quarterly: October to December 2024 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the names of deceased fathers can be included on birth certificates in instances where the parents were unmarried prior to his death.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Under Section 55A of the Family Law Act 1986, in situations where a child is born to unmarried parents, and the father dies prior to the birth, a Declaration of Parentage must be issued by the court in order for the paternity to be established. Once a declaration is issued, the birth can be re-registered to include the father’s details.
We want to make the process as simple as is possible in these circumstances, whilst still ensuring the court has means to establish parentage if one parent is deceased and not able to convey their views. This is vitally important as, in some cases, this decision will have significant financial implications for others, such as children from previous relationships.