Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to protect minors from engagement with dangerous prisoners on (a) TikTok and (b) other social media platforms.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Under national policy prisoners can only access the internet in a supervised environment, and only for rehabilitative purposes. Prisoners cannot access or interact with social media whilst in custody.
We have a zero-tolerance approach to illicit mobile phones in prison which some prisoners may use to access social media. Our £100m Security Investment Programme (SIP), aimed at reducing crime in prisons including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the adult closed male estate. As of October 2022, we had recorded 28,626 positive scans, preventing drugs and mobile phones from entering prisons. The SIP also funded the installation of a variety of detection and other mobile phone technologies across the estate, targeting those prisons presenting the highest risk of harm through illicit mobile phone use.
HMPPS’ Digital Media Investigations Unit (DMIU) have the capacity to forensically examine illicit mobile devices, and will investigate reported misuses of social media, working alongside social media sites to identify and stop unlawful activity. Where serious crimes are identified, including offences against children, the matter would be referred to police for consideration. The DMIU has strong working relationships with social media companies, including TikTok, and Meta, and work with them to improve how illegal prison-related content is identified and removed to avoid it impacting on victims, witnesses and members of the public of all ages.
Where possession of an illicit device is confirmed, or a direct link is found between a prisoner and social media content, cases may be referred to the police for further investigation and prisons can take further punitive action.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the rise of prisoners using mobile phones to record and upload videos to social media platforms.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Under national policy prisoners can only access the internet in a supervised environment, and only for rehabilitative purposes. Prisoners cannot access or interact with social media whilst in custody.
We have a zero-tolerance approach to illicit mobile phones in prison which some prisoners may use to access social media. Our £100m Security Investment Programme (SIP), aimed at reducing crime in prisons including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the adult closed male estate. As of October 2022, we had recorded 28,626 positive scans, preventing drugs and mobile phones from entering prisons. The SIP also funded the installation of a variety of detection and other mobile phone technologies across the estate, targeting those prisons presenting the highest risk of harm through illicit mobile phone use.
HMPPS’ Digital Media Investigations Unit (DMIU) have the capacity to forensically examine illicit mobile devices, and will investigate reported misuses of social media, working alongside social media sites to identify and stop unlawful activity. Where serious crimes are identified, including offences against children, the matter would be referred to police for consideration. The DMIU has strong working relationships with social media companies, including TikTok, and Meta, and work with them to improve how illegal prison-related content is identified and removed to avoid it impacting on victims, witnesses and members of the public of all ages.
Where possession of an illicit device is confirmed, or a direct link is found between a prisoner and social media content, cases may be referred to the police for further investigation and prisons can take further punitive action.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to help ensure the safety of the general public when prisoners serving their sentence in open prisons are outside of the facility.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Only those prisoners who have been assessed as presenting a low risk, including to victims, or have a suitable plan in place to manage identified risks, are allocated to an open prison. Once in open conditions prisoners may apply to be released on temporary licence (ROTL) for specified purposes, generally linked to resettlement.
Access to ROTL is not automatic but is subject to a further, rigorous risk assessment. Releases are monitored in line with the assessment and those who breach the strict conditions set may face a return to closed custody.
By providing opportunities to work, learn and build family ties, temporary release from prison reduces the chances of reoffending. Evidence shows the vast majority abide by their temporary release conditions, with a compliance rate of over 99%.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress his Department has made on reducing the time it takes to process probate applications.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Despite the unprecedented challenges faced by the probate service during the Covid 19 pandemic, and the increased volume of applications that have been seen since, the average length of time taken for a grant of probate following receipt of the documents required has been maintained at between five and seven weeks - with the average responses being almost 1 week faster in quarter 2 of 2022 than the yearly average for 2020 and 2021.
HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand following an increased number of estates requiring probate and is further increasing resourcing to further bring down overall timeliness on digital and paper applications.
Average waiting times for probate grants, from April 2022 to June 2022, are published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 25): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2022.
Information covering up to September 2022 will be published on 15 December.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference his announcement on 9 September 2018 of a review of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme, whether his Department will extend the period of time for which survivors of child sexual abuse can claim compensation beyond 1964.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
State funded schemes to compensate victims of violent crime have existed since 1964. The 2012 Scheme provides that a person is eligible for an award only in relation to a criminal injury sustained on or after 1 August 1964. The review will examine whether the Scheme reflects the changing nature of violent crime and effectively supports victims in their recovery, and consider the impact of the Scheme on particular groups, including victims of child sexual abuse.
We are also removing the pre-1979 same roof rule from the 2012 Scheme, under which applicants were not entitled to compensation for injury from incidents that occurred between 1964 and 1979 if they were living with their assailant as members of the same family at the time of the incident. Past claimants refused under the rule will be able to make new applications.