Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Selous Excerpts

Tuesday 11th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne and Sheppey) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to ensure that prisoners who have been convicted of a crime of violence are assessed before being transferred from secure accommodation to an open prison.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Andrew Selous)]

Progression to an open prison is never automatic; all prisoners undergo regular, mandatory assessments of their risk of escape or abscond, and the risk of harm to the public, and only those assessed as having an acceptable level of risk for lower security conditions can be allocated to an open prison.

[Gordon Henderson]

I thank the Minister for that response, but there is another thing that I am concerned about. Sabul Miah recently absconded from Stanford Hill open prison in my constituency, causing a great deal of upset to the family of the man he was imprisoned for viciously attacking, particularly given that the first they heard of it was when they were contacted by a national newspaper. Would it not be possible for the families of victims of violent crime to be notified immediately by the Prison Service when the perpetrator of the crime either is released from prison or absconds?

[Andrew Selous]

I recognise the seriousness of the issue that my hon. Friend correctly raises. The offender absconded on 23 October. The victim liaison unit was informed of the abscond the next day and tried to contact the one victim who was on the victim contact scheme. They tried her mobile phone number several times but were unable to leave a voicemail. They had not been provided with an e-mail address so sent a letter at the end of that day. The offender was recaptured a week later and sentenced. However, I recognise the seriousness of what my hon. Friend says, and we will make every effort to ensure that victims are informed as soon as possible.[Official Report, 3 December 2014, Vol. 589, c. 3MC.]

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

Can the Minister confirm that 200 sets of prison keys have been lost since 2010? Does he think that that is good prison management?

[Andrew Selous]

I answered a parliamentary question on this matter, so the hon. Gentleman probably knows the answer to his question. Regrettably, keys are lost from time to time. The largest loss was by G4S, so there was no cost to the taxpayer, but it is obviously regrettable and we do not want it to happen. We investigate fully and will try to minimise it as much as possible.

[Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)]

Is my hon. Friend as concerned as I am that when a prisoner escapes from an open prison the public are invariably warned by the police not to approach him because he is considered dangerous?

[Andrew Selous]

I understand the point my hon. Friend makes, but perhaps that is the standard advice given by the police on all occasions. I can tell him, however, that absconds and escapes have fallen by 80% over the past decade, so we have got better at this, but of course we will try to ensure that no one escapes or absconds.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

What programmes are undertaken in prison to help prisoners modify their violent behaviour, and do they have to pass such courses before they are even considered for transfer?

[Andrew Selous]

We are undertaking more detailed risk assessments than there were in the past, but my hon. Friend raises an important point. Members should be aware that the number of people sent to prison for violent offences has increased by 40% over the past decade. However, I have seen very good violence reduction programmes in our prisons and am looking to spread those as widely as possible.

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

2. What recent progress he has made on his courts reform programme.

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[Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)]

10. What proportion of recalls to prison were fixed-term recalls in the latest period for which figures are available.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Andrew Selous)]

Between 1 April and 30 June 2014—the latest period for which data are available—there were a total of 4,216 licence recalls. Of those, 42% were fixed-term recalls.

[Philip Davies]

Most people around the country believe and expect that when a criminal is released from prison early, if they commit another offence before the end of their original sentence they will be sent back to prison for at least the full duration of that original sentence. As the Minister has confirmed, however, 42% of recalls are just 28-day fixed-term recalls. In the first nine months of last year, 1,260 burglars were given 28-day fixed-term recalls, instead of serving the full length of their original sentence. Will the Minister revisit that scandal, which alarms many of our constituents and puts them at unnecessary risk of becoming victims of crime?

[Andrew Selous]

My hon. Friend has taken a long-standing and serious interest in this issue. Fixed-term recalls can be used only when the offender does not pose a risk of serious harm to the public. When recall prisoners are assessed to pose a risk of serious harm to the public, they are given standard recalls to serve the remainder of their sentence in prison, and will be released earlier only if it is safe to do so. Under the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, offenders who do not comply with their licence and are highly likely to commit further breaches if released are deemed unsuitable for fixed-term recall. We therefore have measures either in place or in the pipeline to exclude high-risk and prolific offenders from fixed-term recalls.

[Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)]

12. What plans he has to legalise humanist marriages.

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[Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

T8. Drugs are a growing scourge in our prisons. Altcourse prison in my constituency was recently criticised by Her Majesty’s inspector of prisons for not making the necessary links between drug gangs and violence. Does the Minister agree with the right hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) who said:“If anyone is soft on drugs it’s my Conservative colleagues”?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Andrew Selous)]

We take drugs in prisons extremely seriously. We do our very best to make sure that they are not there. We have mandatory drug testing and the results have actually come down. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that there are new psychoactive substances, and we have to make sure we are working with our scientific partners to have appropriate testing for them. We are also looking to make sure that tramadol is not abused in prisons.

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[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

How many foreign national offenders are there in our prisons and what steps have been taken to return them to serve out their sentences in their countries of origin?

[Andrew Selous]

May I first commend my hon. Friend for persistently and regularly raising this issue? He is right to do so and I have no doubt that he will go on doing so. I can tell him that this Government, unlike the last, have removed more than 22,000 foreign national offenders. Their numbers doubled under the previous Government, but we are bringing their numbers down. Specifically, I can tell my hon. Friend that at the end of September there were 10,319 foreign national offenders in prison, fewer than the 11,153 in May 2010. The figure is down 515 from that in the answer I gave him in September’s oral questions.

[Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)]

On 19 September, Mr Justice Burnett ruled in the High Court that the consultation on criminal legal aid was so unfair as to amount to illegality. The entire criminal justice system is in chaos. What is the Lord Chancellor doing about it?