Oral Answers to Questions

Bobby Dean Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)]

7. If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that all prison leavers receive resettlement support from mentors.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Sir Nicholas Dakin)]

The Ministry of Justice recognises the benefits of mentoring in resettlement and is currently reviewing our approach to peer mentoring to make sure it is consistent and effective. There are many excellent organisations delivering a range of peer-led rehabilitation support, including Ingeus, Wizer and the Wise Group.

[Bobby Dean]

At my surgery a couple of weeks ago, I had two fantastic volunteers show up from Sutton Night Watch, a local homeless charity. They had been working with prisoners, both before and after they left their cells, to help them reintegrate into the community. They are doing fantastic work, but they now need to expand. They need more space and more people. Can the Minister explain what support is available to volunteers like them to help them to do their work with prisoners?

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

I applaud the work that the hon. Member describes. It is certainly the sort of work that needs to continue. Overall, the levels of homelessness and rough sleeping that we have inherited are far too high. We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to develop a long-term strategy to put us back on track to end homelessness. If he wishes to write to me about that particular case, I will follow it up.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bobby Dean Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)]

2. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the condition of prisons.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Sir Nicholas Dakin)]

The prison estate conditions survey programme is a live assessment of the condition of our estate, but there is still much to do. Approximately 4,000 cells were lost to dilapidation under the last Government. That is why we are investing £220 million in Prison and Probation Service maintenance in 2024-25, and up to £300 million in 2025-26.

[Bobby Dean]

A constituent who is now a prisoner of HMP Coldingley wrote to me recently about the appalling conditions in his prison. He spoke about the prevalence of drugs, violence, discrimination and denial of access to healthcare. In his most recent letter to me, he said that the conditions had got so bad that he made an attempt on his life. Another report on Coldingley has described the conditions as “inhumane”. Can the Minister tell me what urgent work is being done to ensure that all our prisons have humane conditions for prisoners?

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

This Government are determined to ensure the best possible conditions in our prisons. We have inherited a crisis in our prisons, I am afraid, but if the hon. Member wishes to write to me about that particular issue, I will be happy to write back to him.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bobby Dean Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

We need to speed up a little. We are only now getting to Question 2.

[Bobby Dean (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)]

2. What steps she is taking to support the rehabilitation of offenders.

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

9. What steps she is taking to support the rehabilitation of offenders.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Sir Nicholas Dakin)]

Hon. Members are right to focus on reducing reoffending. Nearly 80% of offending is reoffending, and it has an immense cost to the taxpayer and to communities. As the Lord Chancellor said, we have inherited a difficult situation in relation to prison capacity, which makes it harder to address the rehabilitation needs of prisoners. The House should have no doubt that this Government will roll up our sleeves and get on with the job of reducing reoffending.

[Bobby Dean]

My point speaks to what the Minister just said. The lack of prison capacity means that some people are locked up in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, and many prisons are ranked insufficient or poor for delivering purposeful activities such as education and training. How does the Minister plan to address that while we still have a bulging prison population? How will he increase the provision of those purposeful activities?

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

We are taking the hard decisions that are necessary to create space and capacity in the Prison Service to address that issue. The hon. Member is right that the report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons identified the provision of sufficient purposeful activity as its No. 1 issue to address. We know that education and employment help to reduce significantly the chance of reoffending, and we will work to do that with the Prison and Probation Service.