Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown Courts in England and Wales have operated below (a) 50 per cent or (b) 25 per cent of their operational capacity within the last 12 months.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
In the ten months September 2020 to June 2021 (in line with published statistics) one court recorded an average utilisation rate of below 50%, recording 48%, and no courts were below 25%. This court is the Central Criminal Court and utilisation was affected by a number of factors including maintenance works in two courtrooms and the reconfiguration of eight smaller courtrooms into jury deliberation rooms in support of social distancing. Only court sittings are recorded in utilisation calculations. This is management information and reflects the data held at the date of extraction, which is subject to change.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) probation officers and (b) Probation Service officers have left the service every year since Transforming Rehabilitation was announced.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested, from 1st June 2014, can be found at: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
‘Transforming rehabilitation: a strategy for reform’ was published on 9th May 2013. The National Probation Service (NPS) came into existence on 1st June 2014. The Ministry of Justice do not hold Probation Officer or Probation Service Officers leavers data from the previous Probation Trusts’ for the period between the announcement on 9th May 2013 to the point the NPS was formed on 1st June 2014 or for Community Rehabilitation Companies from the 1st of June 2014 until the services unified in June 2021.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many mothers assessed as suitable to keep their baby with them on the prison estate were not able to due to a lack of mother and baby placements in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
No mother has been denied a place on a Mother and Baby Unit (MBU) in the Women’s Custodial Estate due to lack of capacity since 2017, when current data collection commenced.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average distance is for a woman placed in the prison system to their home.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As of 17 September 2021, a woman in prison was on average 46 miles from their origin address.
There are complex and wide-ranging issues involved in transferring and locating prisoners, and allocation decisions must reflect both the specific needs and circumstances of the prisoner, including their security assessment, as well as the operating environment and range of services at the receiving prison.
HMPPS is committed to ensuring, where practicable, that prisoners are accommodated as close as possible to their resettlement communities and families. Whilst this is a priority, it is not always possible due to a variety of factors including wider population pressures, or where women have specific sentence planning needs which can only be met at certain establishments.
Around 97% of prisoners have an origin location; i.e. addresses that are recorded in our central IT system. If no address is given, an offender’s committal court address is used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. This information is included in the data provided above. Those with no recorded origin are typically foreign nationals or those recently received into custody.
The numerical information provided has been drawn from administrative IT systems, which as with any large scale recording system are subject to possible error with data entry and processing.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims of domestic violence have had an application for legal aid denied when applying for a non-molestation order in each year since 2010.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Legal aid is available to obtain an injunction to protect survivors of domestic violence. This is not subject to any upper means limit; applicants cannot be found financially ineligible for this form of support. Applications are subject to a merits test to assess their suitability for legal aid funding. Please note that volumes relate to applications for legal aid and not individual applicants; an individual may submit more than one application for public funding. Less than 1.4% of applications for legal aid for a non-molestation order were refused since 2010. Less than 7% of applications for an occupation order were refused since 2010.
Applications for legal aid for occupation orders and non-molestation orders:
| OCCUPATION ORDERS | |
YEAR | APPLICATIONS | REFUSALS |
2010-2011 | 715 | 27 |
2011-2012 | 524 | 21 |
2012-2013 | 600 | 35 |
2013-2014 | 208 | 15 |
2014-2015 | 215 | 8 |
2015-2016 | 243 | 13 |
2016-2017 | 354 | 27 |
2017-2018 | 301 | 25 |
2018-2019 | 373 | 44 |
2019-2020 | 332 | 42 |
2020-2021 | 321 | 32 |
| NON-MOLESTATION ORDERS | |
YEAR | APPLICATIONS | REFUSALS |
2010-2011 | 11,649 | 35 |
2011-2012 | 10,520 | 14 |
2012-2013 | 11,495 | 25 |
2013-2014 | 15,261 | 68 |
2014-2015 | 14,121 | 131 |
2015-2016 | 13,461 | 132 |
2016-2017 | 13,251 | 235 |
2017-2018 | 13,399 | 307 |
2018-2019 | 13,189 | 406 |
2019-2020 | 16,148 | 391 |
2020-2021 | 21,790 | 403 |
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims of domestic violence have had an application for legal aid denied in relation to an application for an occupation order in each year since 2010.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Legal aid is available to obtain an injunction to protect survivors of domestic violence. This is not subject to any upper means limit; applicants cannot be found financially ineligible for this form of support. Applications are subject to a merits test to assess their suitability for legal aid funding. Please note that volumes relate to applications for legal aid and not individual applicants; an individual may submit more than one application for public funding. Less than 1.4% of applications for legal aid for a non-molestation order were refused since 2010. Less than 7% of applications for an occupation order were refused since 2010.
Applications for legal aid for occupation orders and non-molestation orders:
| OCCUPATION ORDERS | |
YEAR | APPLICATIONS | REFUSALS |
2010-2011 | 715 | 27 |
2011-2012 | 524 | 21 |
2012-2013 | 600 | 35 |
2013-2014 | 208 | 15 |
2014-2015 | 215 | 8 |
2015-2016 | 243 | 13 |
2016-2017 | 354 | 27 |
2017-2018 | 301 | 25 |
2018-2019 | 373 | 44 |
2019-2020 | 332 | 42 |
2020-2021 | 321 | 32 |
| NON-MOLESTATION ORDERS | |
YEAR | APPLICATIONS | REFUSALS |
2010-2011 | 11,649 | 35 |
2011-2012 | 10,520 | 14 |
2012-2013 | 11,495 | 25 |
2013-2014 | 15,261 | 68 |
2014-2015 | 14,121 | 131 |
2015-2016 | 13,461 | 132 |
2016-2017 | 13,251 | 235 |
2017-2018 | 13,399 | 307 |
2018-2019 | 13,189 | 406 |
2019-2020 | 16,148 | 391 |
2020-2021 | 21,790 | 403 |
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoner-on-staff hostage incidents there have been in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Hostage incidents within prisons are rare occurrences and HMPPS has comprehensive contingencies in place to resolve them as safely as possible. We have trained negotiators and intervention staff who provide a range of tactical interventions to establishments experiencing incidents of this nature. If an immediate threat to life is identified HMPPS has an agreed protocol with the Armed Policing Portfolio to hand over control of the incident, however we have not needed to call on the protocol since 1989.
The table below provides details of hostage incidents, broken down by victim type each year from March 2010 to March 2021. We publish hostage data in the HMPPS annual digest, therefore we are unable to release data for the period from March 2021 to March 22 until the data is released in July 2022.
Prisoner on Staff Hostage incidents | |
Year | Number |
2010 | 0 |
2011 | 0 |
2012 | 2 |
2013 | 1 |
2014 | 3 |
2015 | 2 |
2016 | 3 |
2017 | 1 |
2018 | 9 |
2019 | 3 |
2020 | 0 |
2021 | 0 |
Grand Total | 24 |
Note: These figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although the figures are shown to the last case the figures may not be accurate to that level.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of prison cells out of commission as a result of poor maintenance in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Over the past decade, prison capacity has been taken out of use both temporarily and on a longer-term basis for a number of reasons, including deterioration in the standard and condition of the accommodation. Accommodation is also taken out of use for essential maintenance and refurbishment. It is not possible, however, to provide a reasonable estimate as to which of these decisions was a result of ‘poor maintenance’.
We are investing £315m in capital funding over the next year to improve the condition of the existing estate. Some 1,900 places are currently out of use to enable this work along with more minor repairs. This will be supported by 1,000 temporary cells which can accommodate prisoners during maintenance and refurbishment work.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time spent on remand was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Centrally held court data does not include the amount of time spent remanded in custody, and therefore obtaining this information would result in a disproportionate cost to the department.
Prison receptions data has enabled an approximation of the data that has been requested. The attached table provides information on the average time spent on remand by all prisoners entering custody after sentencing between January 2010 and March 2021.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the ethnic breakdown is of people held on remand in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The decision to remand an individual in custody or to grant bail is solely a matter for the courts acting in accordance with the Bail Act 1976 and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012, which provides a framework of remand in custody and creates a presumption in favour of bail for all defendants involved in criminal proceedings.
The Ministry of Justice holds information for remand outcomes broken down by ethnicity in the Magistrates’ and Crown Court at the following links:
Remand Population and Total Population by Ethnicity in England and Wales 2015-2020
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1006270/Population_30June2021_Annual.ods
Remand Population by Magistrates Court
Remand Population by Crown Court
Research by the Youth Justice Board on Ethnic disproportionality in remand and sentencing in the youth justice system was published on 21 January 2021 and can be accessed via the following link:
Routine Youth Justice Statistics 2019/2020 released on 28th January show remand broken down by ethnicity: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-statistics-2019-to-2020