Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to reply to the correspondence from the hon. Member for East Londonderry of 2 March 2023 on non-disclosure of legal aid costs.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice takes the handling of correspondence seriously and in this instance, due to an administrative error, there was a delay in responding. We apologise for the delay and will respond to the correspondence in question within one week.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the next stages are of the roll out of the Drug Recovery Prison pilot at HMP Holme House.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Drug Recovery Prison pilot at HMP Holme House ran from April 2017 until March 2020. It was a jointly supported programme commissioned by both the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service and the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement. NHS England and Improvement as well as HM Prison and Probation Service continue to support the programme with many of the activities introduced during the pilot phase moving into business as usual delivery. A Process Evaluation of the Drug Recovery Prison Programme has been completed and will be published shortly. An Impact and Economic Evaluation is due to be completed in 2023.
Lessons learned from the Drug Recovery Prison pilot continue to be used to inform wide reaching initiatives such as the HMPPS Security Investment Programme and the Accelerator Prisons Project.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with the Attorney General on the implications of the acquittal of four people charged with criminal damage to a statue of Edward Colston in Bristol for the criminal justice system.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
In any case where there is an acquittal in the Crown Court, the Attorney General has the power to ask the Court of Appeal for its opinion on a point of law which arose in the case.
The Attorney General is carefully considering whether to make such a referral.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Unlocking Potential, A review of education in prison, published in May 2016, what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations contained in that review.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Following Dame Sally Coates’ 2016 review, the budget for prison education was moved from the Department for Education (DfE) to the Ministry of Justice. This was in response to the core recommendation to give prison governors more flexibility and control over the curriculum so that they could better meet the learning needs of their prisoners. To address further recommendations, we introduced assessment on entry for English, maths and learning difficulties and disabilities, and boosted the capability of prisons to engage with employers through the creation of the New Futures Network (NFN). We expect to further improve the infrastructure for learning through the Government’s commitment to invest £200 million a year by 2024-25 to tackle reoffending and meet the manifesto commitment of delivering a new Prisoner Education Service. We have already started to trial innovation such as specialist education roles, as well as invest in digital tools to support prisoners with additional learning needs, such as trialling the use of reader pens.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many drug finds in prisons there have been in the (a) two year before and (b) two years since the launch of the National Prison Drug Strategy in April 2019.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Data on drugs finds are published online in the HMPPS Annual Digests. Although the data does not cover the precise period detailed in the question each Digest provides data for a 12-month time period up to March for a given year. From this data it is possible to calculate how many drug finds in prisons there have been in the two years before 1 April and the two years following 1 April 2019 (inclusive).
In August 2019, the Government committed to invest £100 million in prison security in an ambitious new Security Investment Programme. One of the aims of the Programme was to reduce the quantity of illicit items, including drugs, entering the prison estate.
Since then, we have seen the installation of 73 X-ray body scanners, with over 9000 positive indications. This has included contraband being retrieved, for example in one case 10.5g of cocaine with an estimated prison value of £4000 was recovered. The roll out of Enhanced Gate Security (EGS), based on the measures used in airport screening, has resulted in hundreds of illicit items prevented from entering prisons.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the implementation of the Government's policy to allocate £100 million funding to improve prison security and restrict the supply of drugs into prisons, as announced in August 2019; and what criteria his Department has used to assess the value for money of that funding.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Preventing contraband such as drugs into prisons via the gate, reception and post is a key priority of my department. Despite challenges to operational delivery during the pandemic, we are delivering on our commitment for safer and more secure prisons including through the £100 million investment in prison security through the Security Investment Programme (SIP).
The evaluation of the impact of SIP is still in its early stages and we will report indicative findings in Spring 2022 and final findings in Spring 2023. Although formal evaluation is in its early stages, we do know that within its first year, the SIP has had multiple successes, achieving the following:
The installation of 69 X-ray body scanners, with over 9000 positive indications. This has included contraband being retrieved, for example in one case 10.5g of cocaine with an estimated prison value of £4000 was recovered.
The roll out of Enhanced Gate Security (EGS), replicating the measures used in airport screening, resulting in hundreds of illicit items being prevented from entering prisons.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his timetable is for the Drug Recovery Prison pilot at HMP Holme House to (a) conclude and (b) report its findings.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Drug Recovery Prison (DRP) at HMP Holme House is jointly run and funded by the MoJ/HMPPS and NHS England/Improvement (the body responsible for overseeing NHS trusts and independent healthcare providers). The DRP aims to create a whole prison approach to tackle the supply of drugs into prison, together with creating an environment where prisoners have access to the full range of health services that meet individual needs and are given support to lead a drug free life while they are in custody and also following their release into the community.
The DRP pilot began in April 2017 and ended in March 2020. The DRP was mentioned in part one of Dame Carol Black’s Review of Drugs as an example of good practice. MoJ/HMPPS and NHSE have though continued to fund the work of the DRP as part of business as usual funding.
The pilot will be subject to three evaluations. A process evaluation is currently being finalised and will be published in Autumn 2021. Following this, economic and impact evaluations of pilot will be conducted and will be published in 2023/24 (the lag in the impact and economic evaluations is due to the delay in the 1-year reoffending statistics becoming available). Findings from the evaluations of the pilot will help to inform future health and justice interventions across the prison estate.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether an assessment has been made of the effect of the number of prison visits received by a prisoner on offending rates after release.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
This Government is committed to reducing reoffending by ensuring that all offenders have the tools they need to turn their backs on crime.
Families and friends can be a positive influence on reducing reoffending. Strengthening the ties individuals have with their families and friends is one of the many important factors to successful rehabilitation and reducing intergenerational crime.
We know family contact can reduce the likelihood of reoffending, Ministry of Justice research analysis reporting on surveys carried out from 2001 to 2004 found that the odds of reoffending were 39% higher for prisoners who had not received visits compared to those who had. The research summary is available here: Factors linked to re-offending: a one-year follow-up of prisoners who took part in the Resettlement Surveys 2001, 2003 and 2004 (antoniocasella.eu). However, information on the number of visits a prisoner receives and a reduction in reoffending behaviour is not available.
The latest published data on reoffending rates for those released from custody was published 27 May: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-january-to-march-2019
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will set a target for the reduction of drugs in prisons during the lifetime of the 2019 Parliament.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Stopping drugs getting into and circulating in prisons is a key priority. Whilst we will not be introducing a specific target, we are taking decisive action to improve our ability to disrupt this type of criminality by putting in place security counter-measures that would allow us to seize more items than ever before.
In August 2019, we announced £100 million investment to boost prison security and restrict supply with a focus on technology to detect and disrupt drugs and mobile phones from entering prisons. This is supported by enhancements to intelligence and counter corruption capabilities.
This investment supports our National Prison Drugs Strategy published in April 2019. The Strategy has three strands to tackle drugs in prisons: (1) restricting the supply; (2) reducing demand; and (3) building recovery from drugs and substance misuse. We are working with law enforcement and health partners across government to implement this and improvements to our drug testing framework are a key component of this strategy.
The Drug Recovery Prison (DRP) at Holme House, is a £9 million project which is jointly funded by the Department for Health and Social Care and MoJ. It provides an innovative, whole system approach to tackling substance misuse. The pilot aims to reduce the supply and demand for illicit substances in prisons, whilst supporting recovery. Findings from the evaluations of the pilot will help to identify successful initiatives that will be shared across the prison estate.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide an estimate of the volume of the reduction of illegal drugs smuggled into prisons he expects to be delivered through the implementation of the National Prison Drugs Strategy.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
By its very nature, drug trafficking is intended to be a clandestine activity. It is therefore not possible to estimate a volume reduction in drugs being smuggled into prisons. However, we are taking a number of steps to strengthen our prisons’ defences against this type of criminality.
To support the ‘reducing supply’ strand of the National Prison Drugs Strategy, we are taking decisive action to improve security. This will make it much harder for illicit items to be smuggled in by prisoners, staff and visitors; strengthen staff resilience to corruption; and target organised criminals who exploit prisons as a lucrative illicit market. This package of measures is being funded through the £100m investment to tackle crime behind bars, announced by the Prime Minister last summer. This is funding tough new measures including X-ray body scanners to detect items smuggled inside prisoners’ bodies. Our ability to tackle drugs supply is also supported by efforts to reduce demand for drugs. This is why the National Drugs Strategy takes a three-pronged approach and focusses on tackling supply, reducing demand and building recovery from substance misuse.
A planned evaluation of the £100m investment will consider the wider benefits and outcomes for the safety and security of prisons as measures of success. It will use a range of both quantitative and qualitative measures to assess whether delivery of the investment has successfully reduced drug trafficking into prisons through the targeted supply routes.