Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, of the total convictions recorded in the last five years involving a crime committed by a prisoner against a prison officer or another employee of Her Majesty's Prison Service, how many and what proportion of those convictions resulted in an additional (non-concurrent) sentence for the perpetrator.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Violence against our hardworking staff will not be tolerated and any prisoner who commits an act of violence will be held to account.
Currently, data is not held centrally on the number of convictions for crimes committed by a prisoner against prison employees. This is being reviewed with the aim to collate data from all establishments for all crimes committed in prison, whilst also creating guidance on how to appropriately refer crimes committed in prison to the police.
The ‘Crime in Prison Referral Agreement’ was created in May 2019 and sets out the agreement between Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The aim is to ensure that acts of criminality that occur in prison are appropriately addressed within the Criminal Justice System.
In line with the Crime in Prison Referral Agreement, assaults against members of staff will be referred to the police for investigation and consideration for prosecution. Less serious assaults, where there is little or no injury, are more appropriately dealt with by the prison disciplinary system.
The courts retain the discretion to decide whether sentences should be served concurrently or consecutively, based on the facts of the case. The Sentencing Council’s Totality guideline provides courts with guidance on whether sentences should be served concurrently or consecutively. Where the individual is serving a determinate sentence and commits another offence after the original sentence was imposed, the new sentence will generally be consecutive to the original sentence.
Our Assaults on Emergency Workers Act increased the maximum penalty for to 12 months and we recently announced we will double the penalty further to two years.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many attacks on prison officers occurred in the last five years by (a) year and (b) type of offence.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Please see the attached table showing the number of prisoner assaults on staff, by offence of prisoner, 2016 to 2019 and January to September 2020 and the number of assaults on staff for 2015.
Violence against our hard-working prison officers is unacceptable and will never be tolerated, and we work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to bring the perpetrators to justice. Additionally, as outlined in our Sentencing White Paper, we will double the maximum sentence for assaulting an emergency worker from 12 months to two years.
We are also giving officers tools like PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer, as well as access to post incident care teams, occupational health support and counselling for those who need it. More widely, we are spending £100 million to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars. This is funding tough measures including X-ray body scanners, drug dogs and phone-blocking technology.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of (a) the UK Council of Psychotherapy Conversion Therapy Consensus Statement, published in June 2014, and (b) the decisions of the governments of (i) Germany, with reference to the BBC News article of 8 May 2020 entitled Germany passes law banning gay conversion therapy for minors, and (ii) Canada, with reference to amendments by the Canadian Government to the Criminal Code of Canada, to ban conversion therapy; and what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on bringing forward legislative proposals to ban practice of that therapy.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government takes this issue very seriously and fundamentally disagrees with attempts to forcibly change someone’s sexuality. I am working with colleagues across Government on this issue, and we will outline plans to end its practice in due course.
As part of ongoing engagement with healthcare stakeholders and other Government Departments, GEO officials have been reviewing all relevant statements, including the 2014 statement and more recent developments, in order to inform thinking around future proposals.
We are aware of the developments that have been made in Germany, Canada and elsewhere. Officials are in discussion with international policy counterparts, in order to fully understand the detail around their measures, and to inform the UK’s next steps.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many instances of (a) trespass on land under section 61 and (b) aggravated trespass on land under section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 have taken place in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Prosecutions, convictions and sentencing outcomes up to the year ending December 2018 are available in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool’, available at the following link:
To identify prosecutions, convictions and sentences for the above offences, filter ‘Offence code’ by
(a) ‘12522’ for trespass on land under section 61.
(b) ‘12533’ for aggravated trespass on land under section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
In each case, the number of individuals prosecuted, convicted and sentenced can be found in rows 31, 32, and 33, respectively.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support is his Department provides to prison officers who have been a victim of crime at work.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Prison Officers are some of our finest public servants, and we do not underestimate the challenges faced by everyone working in prisons. We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and providing prison officers with the right support, training and tools to empower them to do their jobs.
We provide post-incident care teams, occupational health support and counselling for members of staff who are assaulted while doing their job and we are currently rolling out TRiM (Trauma Risk Management), a trauma-focused peer support system designed to help people who have experienced a traumatic event.
We are rolling out body worn cameras, police-style restraints and PAVA incapacitant spray to prison officers to help them do their job more safely.
We have recruited more than 4,200 new prison officers over the past four years and we’re investing £2.75 billion to transform the estate, to make prisons safer and cut crime behind bars.
Prisoners who assault staff should feel the full force of the law. We are working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure prosecutions of prisoners who assault staff along with the strongest possible punishment being imposed. The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act increases sentences for those who assault prison officers.