Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been (a) found in and (b) prosecuted for possession of a bladed article in the last year.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMPPS published the revised Crime in Prison Referral Agreement in October 2022. The agreement aims to ensure that all acts of criminality that occur in prison are properly addressed within the criminal justice system, particularly in circumstances that indicate that a criminal prosecution is appropriate or where a statutory obligation exists.
It is not possible to identify the number of prisoners found in or prosecuted for possession of a bladed article in the last year. Detailed information may be held on local administrative records, but to be able to identify these cases we would have to access and review all potentially relevant records which would be of disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information does his Department collect on the method of attack used against prison officers following an assault.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We publish statistics on the number of total assaults, broken down by type of weapon, as part of our Safety in Custody statistics. Table 3.10 at this link includes figures for assaults by weapon: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65b0e9f0f2718c0014fb1c2a/safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-22.xlsx.
The categories in the linked table above are what the MoJ collects on the method of attack.
We also hold data broken down by victim of these assaults, which we hold for staff, including for prison officers only.
Please note that assaults on staff are a subset of all assault incidents. Some assault incidents may be recorded as both a prisoner-on-prisoner assault and an assault on staff. Therefore, a breakdown of incidents involving weapons may also include some incidents where a weapon was used to assault a prisoner, but a staff member was also assaulted during the incident without the use of a weapon. It would not be possible to differentiate these incidents and produce a table of incidents where a weapon was used to assault a staff member, without review of the free text describing each incident
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been successfully prosecuted for attacks on prison officers with razors in the last year.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data on how many prisoners have been successfully prosecuted for attacks on prison officers with razors in the last year could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will have discussions with representatives of Apple on potential steps to tackle fraud relating to Apple Gift cards.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Government is committed to tackling online fraud and holding those who profit from it to account by working closely with industry, regulators and consumer groups to consider legislative and non-legislative solutions.
This includes continuing work on digital identity and data protection and work with the telecommunications and other sectors to target harden systems and design out key online vulnerabilities.
We have launched Stop! Think Fraud, a new campaign led by the Home Office in collaboration with many organisations across government, law enforcement, banking, tech firms, and charities to give people the tools and information they need to stay ahead of scams, and help protect themselves against fraud.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will take steps to tackle fraud using gift cards.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Government is committed to tackling online fraud and holding those who profit from it to account by working closely with industry, regulators and consumer groups to consider legislative and non-legislative solutions.
This includes continuing work on digital identity and data protection and work with the telecommunications and other sectors to target harden systems and design out key online vulnerabilities.
We have launched Stop! Think Fraud, a new campaign led by the Home Office in collaboration with many organisations across government, law enforcement, banking, tech firms, and charities to give people the tools and information they need to stay ahead of scams, and help protect themselves against fraud.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure banks follow the Banking Protocol to protect vulnerable adults from fraud.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of ending the supply of razors to prisoners.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of assaults on prison officers involving razors in each of the last 24 months, and subsequently how many of those have resulted in (a) hospitalisation or (b) prison officers leaving the service could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Data on how many prisoners have been successfully prosecuted for attacks on prison officers with razors could also only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and recognise the risks associated with the current wet shave razor provision. In the 2021 Prison Safety White Paper, we committed to trial alternatives to wet-shave razors in prisons to test whether a change in approach might lead to a safer environment for both prisoners and staff. Throughout 2022 and 2023 six pilots have been carried out in the male estate and one carried out in the female estate.
Testing at all sites has now concluded and the results are being evaluated. The evaluation will consider outcomes, learning and positive practice from across all pilot sites and will be measured against the impact they have had on violence and/or self-harm.
The evaluation will be completed by the end of March 2024. This evaluation will enable us to make informed recommendations on future shaving provision in prison establishments.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been successfully prosecuted for attacks on prison officers with razors in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of assaults on prison officers involving razors in each of the last 24 months, and subsequently how many of those have resulted in (a) hospitalisation or (b) prison officers leaving the service could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Data on how many prisoners have been successfully prosecuted for attacks on prison officers with razors could also only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and recognise the risks associated with the current wet shave razor provision. In the 2021 Prison Safety White Paper, we committed to trial alternatives to wet-shave razors in prisons to test whether a change in approach might lead to a safer environment for both prisoners and staff. Throughout 2022 and 2023 six pilots have been carried out in the male estate and one carried out in the female estate.
Testing at all sites has now concluded and the results are being evaluated. The evaluation will consider outcomes, learning and positive practice from across all pilot sites and will be measured against the impact they have had on violence and/or self-harm.
The evaluation will be completed by the end of March 2024. This evaluation will enable us to make informed recommendations on future shaving provision in prison establishments.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of assaults on prison officers involving razors.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of assaults on prison officers involving razors in each of the last 24 months, and subsequently how many of those have resulted in (a) hospitalisation or (b) prison officers leaving the service could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Data on how many prisoners have been successfully prosecuted for attacks on prison officers with razors could also only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and recognise the risks associated with the current wet shave razor provision. In the 2021 Prison Safety White Paper, we committed to trial alternatives to wet-shave razors in prisons to test whether a change in approach might lead to a safer environment for both prisoners and staff. Throughout 2022 and 2023 six pilots have been carried out in the male estate and one carried out in the female estate.
Testing at all sites has now concluded and the results are being evaluated. The evaluation will consider outcomes, learning and positive practice from across all pilot sites and will be measured against the impact they have had on violence and/or self-harm.
The evaluation will be completed by the end of March 2024. This evaluation will enable us to make informed recommendations on future shaving provision in prison establishments.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many assaults on prison officers involving razors have resulted in (a) hospitalisation and (b) prison officers leaving the service in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of assaults on prison officers involving razors in each of the last 24 months, and subsequently how many of those have resulted in (a) hospitalisation or (b) prison officers leaving the service could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Data on how many prisoners have been successfully prosecuted for attacks on prison officers with razors could also only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
We are committed to making prisons a safe place to work and recognise the risks associated with the current wet shave razor provision. In the 2021 Prison Safety White Paper, we committed to trial alternatives to wet-shave razors in prisons to test whether a change in approach might lead to a safer environment for both prisoners and staff. Throughout 2022 and 2023 six pilots have been carried out in the male estate and one carried out in the female estate.
Testing at all sites has now concluded and the results are being evaluated. The evaluation will consider outcomes, learning and positive practice from across all pilot sites and will be measured against the impact they have had on violence and/or self-harm.
The evaluation will be completed by the end of March 2024. This evaluation will enable us to make informed recommendations on future shaving provision in prison establishments.