Oral Answers to Questions

Catherine McKinnell Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

7. Whether his Department plans to review licence and probation supervision arrangements for convicted sex offenders following their release from custody.

[The Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending (Catherine McKinnell)]

Protecting the public and victims is our top priority and probation staff now have access to the toughest range of measures ever to manage offenders, backed by over £700 million-worth of investment. To manage the most dangerous offenders convicted of sexual offences, we have introduced a strengthened supervision package, and probation officers can make use of restriction zones and GPS monitoring systems to keep the public safe.

[Tom Hayes]

I thank the Minister for agreeing to meet with some of my constituents, who I saw again yesterday morning. Will the Government’s inclusion of smart glasses and wearable recording technology in probation licence conditions apply to suspended sentences and community orders?

[Catherine McKinnell]

I share my hon. Friend’s concerns about the proliferation of smart glasses and other technology. He will be reassured to know that probation services can already prohibit offenders on licence from possessing and using such items, including smart glasses. I would be happy to meet with him, and I look forward to discussing further how we can ensure that the measure is truly effective and keeps the public safe.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

During the course of the Sentencing Act 2026, I asked the former Lord Chancellor to reassure me about the Probation Service and the use of tagging, following an incident where a constituent had been traumatised by her former partner’s being released under licence and pursuing her because the tags failed. If the Minister cannot reassure me now about the Probation Service vacancy rate and number of tag failures over the last 12 months, will she write to me providing that information?

[Catherine McKinnell]

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s concerns and would be happy to look further into the issues that he raises. As he knows, we are working incredibly hard to ensure we have the probation team and workforce that we need to keep the public safe. We have successfully onboarded 1,389 trainee probation officers. We are up on our targets and the data is going in the right direction, but we appreciate that we need to do more and are working hard to ensure we keep the public safe when offenders are released into the community.

[Mike Tapp (Dover and Deal) (Lab)]

8. What steps his Department is taking to increase the capacity of the prison estate.

[The Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending (Catherine McKinnell)]

As my hon. Friend knows, we inherited a crumbling prison estate that was close to breaking point, with only 100 places remaining. The previous Government were just days away from reaching capacity, which is why we are working at pace to deliver an additional 14,000 prison places by 2031; we have already delivered 3,300. That stands in marked contrast to the 500 net places that the Conservative Government managed to add during 14 years in office.

[Mike Tapp]

I thank the Minister for the fantastic progress made. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that foreign national offenders are held in prison until they are deported, not released back into our society where they can reoffend or abscond?

[Catherine McKinnell]

There are currently thousands of foreign criminals in our prisons, at vast expense to the taxpayer, and that cannot be right when we need every space in our prisons. Within our first two years, the Government have increased foreign national offender returns by 41% compared with the last two years of the previous Government. I am sure my hon. Friend is aware that capacity in the immigration removals estate is within the remit of the Home Office, and we continue to work closely with the Department to ensure we increase the number of foreign national offenders being removed and keep the public safe.

[Ben Obese-Jecty (Huntingdon) (Con)]

I will push back gently on the Minister’s assertion of 3,300 new prison places, knowing full well that they were all approved under the previous Conservative Government. Across the adult male prison population, there are 3,669 places out of service due to everything from lack of fire safety measures to infestations of bedbugs and rodents. What are the Government doing to expedite the renewal of those prison places, some of which are out of service until as far out as 2034, given that prisoners are being released, including some today?

[Catherine McKinnell]

The hon. Gentleman is brave to highlight the record that his Government left, which is a backlog of repairs and a shortage of places. That is why we are working on delivering the largest prison expansion programme since the Victorian era. We are bringing forward £110 million of existing budgets so that we can deliver additional places faster. We are working to repair the perilous state in which the previous Government left some of our prison estate, and ensuring that we manage offenders in the community through an increased Probation Service, which the Conservatives also decimated.

[Yuan Yang (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)]

9. What steps he is taking to help tackle recidivism.

[Luke Taylor (Sutton and Cheam) (LD)]

19. What steps he is taking to improve programmes that reduce reoffending.

[The Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending (Catherine McKinnell)]

Reducing offending is vital for cutting crime and improving public safety, which is why we are working with partners across Government to improve outcomes through better access to treatment, education, employment and accommodation. We are also investing in probation and expanding intensive supervision courts for prolific offenders.

[Yuan Yang]

This week is the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers’ annual Respect Week to raise awareness of the impacts of retail crime. From working with Thames Valley police in my patch, I know that a significant proportion of shoplifting is done by a small number of shoplifters who are repeat offenders and is often linked to substance abuse. Local Reading charities like Change Grow Live do great work to combat that. What more can the Department do to support that work and tackle the cycle of reoffending?

[Catherine McKinnell]

My hon. Friend raises an important point: around 60% of crimes are committed by 9% of offenders. Prolific offending is clearly a challenge that we need to address. That is why we are expanding intensive supervision courts, which combine intensive rehabilitative sentences with close judicial oversight to reduce repeated offending and ensure punishment that works, as well as investing in rehabilitation. Reducing reoffending and relieving our prison capacity challenge is a key focus for us.

[Luke Taylor]

The outgoing chief inspector of prisons said last week that organised gangs are using drones to smuggle up to 10 kg of drugs into prison at a time, and claimed that up to a quarter of prisoners admit to having developed a habit in prison because drugs are so rife. The Independent newspaper reported Charlie Taylor saying that many prisoners are leaving custody “doomed to come back” because they are not being rehabilitated. He claimed that the

“public are not being protected properly”

when prisoners are freed because their risk has not been reduced. In the year to March ’26, drugs were discovered in UK prisons 26,630 times—up by nearly a third from five years ago. Does the Minister agree that those in prison, and particularly those in for drug-related offences, stand little chance of turning their lives around and reducing their chances of reoffending on release if they are still routinely exposed to the evils of drugs?

[Catherine McKinnell]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point and a very clear case for why we have to deal with the prison system we inherited. The system has very deep and complex pressures, some of which he has highlighted: drones, security on the estate, drugs, and ensuring that we can invest in rehabilitation. All those things are made more challenging while our prison system is running at capacity, due to the system we inherited. However, they also make us more determined to achieve the outcomes for which he quite rightly advocates.

[Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)]

11. What progress his Department has made on utilising AI for innovation in legal services.

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[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

T2. Members across the House will remember the desperate prison capacity situation back in July 2024, when fewer than 100 prison places were left on the whole estate and the whole justice system was on the brink of collapse thanks to the shocking incompetence of the Conservative party. Will the Minister update the House on the progress made on fixing that Tory mess through the Government’s prison rebuilding programme?

[The Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending (Catherine McKinnell)]

We are making good progress. Around 3,300 places out of our target of 14,000 have been delivered since we took office, including a 170-place refurbished wing at HMP Norwich, which opened in June this year, bringing these places into the 21st century. We are also bringing forward £110 million from existing budgets to deliver additional prison places even faster. We are determined to clean up the mess that the previous Government left us and to build a criminal justice system that is fit for today.

[Sarah Pochin (Runcorn and Helsby) (Reform)]

T4. Two months ago, I wrote to the Secretary of State asking him to confirm how many prisoners will be released under the Government’s early release scheme untagged because they cited homelessness or mental health issues. I got a reply from his Minister saying that she could not answer the question because the scheme did not start till 1 October, but her letter was dated 4 November—five weeks later. Will Secretary of State tell me today how many have been released early untagged for those reasons?

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) (Lab)]

T3. In response to written questions last month, Ministers claimed that Serco has met every single key performance indicator since March, yet the Department’s figures from 30 September show that 15% of those with a monitoring order had no tag fitted, and that 1,309 had been out of contact for 28 days or more. The Department will not disclose what penalties Serco has paid, but has agreed £48 million in extra payments. With up to 22,000 more people due to be tagged next year, how is that value for money? When will the Department do away with its poorer performing contractors?

[Catherine McKinnell]

As my hon. Friend will know, the contract with Serco was entered into by the previous Government. Serco’s KPI measures include whether installation visits take place within contractual timescales, but being recorded without a tag does not necessarily indicate failure; it may be that the individual has returned to prison, or they may still remain within the installation window. That is why we regularly publish the statistics to ensure that they accurately reflect the situation. I will take her other points on board.

[Luke Taylor (Sutton and Cheam) (LD)]

T5. We were all disgusted by the shocking details of the Russell Brand court case this week, and we had all seen reporting of the famous man who lost his appeal to remain anonymous, who was today named as David Walliams. One of the most common lawfare tactics used to shut down investigations and block accountability are SLAPP—strategic lawsuit against public participation—orders, which have a chilling effect on media scrutiny and faith in the legal process overall. Will the Minister therefore confirm whether the Government plan to finally listen to the Lib Dems and introduce a comprehensive anti-SLAPP law to stop this harmful practice?

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[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

T9. Probation officers like those who work at Harlow probation office do crucial work rehabilitating those who are released from prison and ensuring that our communities are safe. What is the Minister doing to ensure that we recruit more probation officers and to ensure that they have the skills needed to do that vital work?

[Catherine McKinnell]

I pay tribute to our hard-working and dedicated probation staff, including those who bravely intervened yesterday at Manchester magistrates court to tackle an individual with a knife. Probation staff perform vital work in our communities, we owe them a debt of gratitude, and we need more to come and join the team. While we continue to exceed our recruitment targets with almost 1,400 recruited last year and a target of 1,300 in 2026-27, my message is, “Come and join this important service to protect the public and keep communities safe.”

[David Davis (Goole and Pocklington) (Con)]

After the sexual predator Russell Brand was convicted last week, the newspapers reported on an injunction brought by him and Jemima Goldsmith against Miss Berki, aimed at stopping antisemitic harassment by Miss Berki. It included a clause, however, that suppressed free speech. Jemima Goldsmith tried to relax that in December, and Brand stopped her. He is still stopping her from doing that. She is a victim of his violence. Can the Secretary of State look at how a convicted criminal can suppress free speech and continue to embarrass his victims?

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[Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)]

When 73% of those released from prison with no home to go to go on to reoffend, the system is clearly setting people up to fail. It is vital that we attack the social and economic causes of reoffending and help people to rebuild their lives. What cross-departmental discussions have Ministers had about improving access to social housing, mental health support and drug and alcohol dependency support?

[Catherine McKinnell]

Many discussions are ongoing. Ending rough sleeping and tackling homelessness is a key priority for the Prime Minister, as he has said. Those who are homeless on release from custody have reoffending rates that are nearly double those of people released into accommodation. We are already working on the national plan to end homelessness, but we are working at pace on a cross-Government basis to ensure that we can legislate for a duty to collaborate and that we tackle the scourge that is homelessness both for those leaving prison and re-entering the community and across the board.

[Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli) (PC)]

Will the Minister meet me to discuss the possible addition of assault in cases of grievous bodily harm to schedule 5 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003? That seems to be the only pathway to justice for a constituent of mine who, despite being the victim of a brutal attack, saw the case against their alleged assailant withdrawn just days before trial because of the erroneous decision of the Crown Prosecution Service not to offer any evidence in support of prosecution.

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[Sonia Kumar (Dudley) (Lab)]

Over 60% of people in prison have speech, language or communication needs. Effective rehabilitation must be holistic. To prevent reoffending and provide support, it is paramount that we address not only the offending behaviour, but the underlying communication, health, education and social needs. What steps is my hon. Friend the Minister taking to ensure that access to speech and language therapists and other allied health professionals is available in prison?

[Catherine McKinnell]

My hon. Friend is an avid campaigner, and with her health background, she is well placed to understand the value of the allied health professionals right across our society. That applies to prison in the same way. Obviously, there is a commitment that any person in prison will have the same access to treatment as they would if they were on the outside, which is vital if we are going to achieve the outcomes we want: reducing reoffending by giving people purposeful activity, education opportunities and the ability to gain skills, so that they can lead a more fulfilling life on the outside. I will certainly take away my hon. Friend’s suggestion about what more we can do.

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

Earlier today, I heard from the head of the Prisoners’ Education Trust about the chaos and cuts caused by new education contracts. In Scotland, scandalously, all prison education is delivered by a private company owned by a US-based venture capitalist. Surely it is time that we take that service in-house for prisons across the United Kingdom and prioritise rehabilitation, not private sector profits.

[Catherine McKinnell]

My hon. Friend is right that education in prison is vital to rehabilitation; it provides hope for an alternative future, and engagement with education is proven to reduce reoffending by up to nine percentage points. We are determined to modernise the prison education, skills and work system. We want a joined-up system that maximises opportunities to support prisoners to progress. We recognise that there have been challenges with rising costs, and we are working at pace to ensure we deliver an education system that works for all.