Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of British Council's repayment of its pandemic loan on its ability to promote UK soft power.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Government is committed to a successful British Council that is financially stable. The Government recognises the value of the British Council as a UK soft power asset through its important work in promoting the English language, UK arts and culture and education. The Government remains committed to recovering the loan as soon as the British Council's finances allow. We are working closely with the British Council and HM Treasury on this issue.  FCDO will provide the British Council with £162.5 million Grant-in-Aid in 2024/25. Funding for 2025/26 will be announced in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of legal protections against the (a) abuse and (b) neglect of older people.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Any form of elder abuse or neglect is unacceptable.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to investigate safeguarding concerns under the Care Act 2014. The statutory guidance of the Care Act 2014 makes it clear that local authorities must ensure that the services they commission are safe, effective, and of high quality. Since April 2023, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has had a duty to assess local authorities’ delivery of their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of ring-fencing a proportion of the funding provided to Police and Crime Commissioners for the provision of (a) independent domestic violence advisers and (b) independent sexual violence advisers.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Supporting victims and witnesses remains a priority focus for the Department and Ministers. Collectively, we are committed to the Government’s pledge to halve Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in a decade.

Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales receive grant funding from the Ministry of Justice’s victim and witness budget to commission local practical, emotional, and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types. For 2022-25 this includes:

• ‘Core’ funding, which is for PCCs to allocate at their discretion, based on their assessment of local need.
• Funding that is ringfenced for sexual violence and domestic abuse community-based services.
• Funding that is ringfenced for Independent Sexual Violence Advisor (ISVA) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) posts.

From 2025/26, the ISVA/IDVA ringfenced fund has been merged with the domestic abuse and sexual violence ringfenced fund. This was assessed to be the best-balanced approach, providing flexibility for local areas to adapt to challenges in their area whilst retaining a focus on VAWG. PCCs can commission ISVA and IDVA support from this funding stream.

Question to the Home Office:

o ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many crimes were committed against (a) women and (b) girls in each of the last five years by crime type.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) regularly publishes estimates, from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), on the proportion of women and girls who have been victims of crime. Information from the 2023/24 survey, for 16+ year olds and 10-15 year olds, and for previous years can be accessed in the annual demographic tables here:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesannualtrendanddemographictables

Experiences of several crimes which are disproportionately experienced by women and girls are also covered by the CSEW in a separate self-completion section of the survey and presented separately by ONS. The latest prevalence estimates for domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking and harassment, for people aged 16 and over broken down by sex, are presented in the ONS Annual supplementary tables, which can be accessed here:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesannualsupplementarytables

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases involved violence against (a) women and (b) girls in (i) criminal and (ii) family courts in each of the last five years.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a top priority for this Government, which is why we have committed to halving the prevalence of VAWG within the decade. We will go further than before to deliver a cross-government transformative approach to halve violence against women and girls, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy to be published this year.

VAWG is defined as offences which predominantly, but not exclusively, affect women and girls. This includes sexual offences, stalking, harassment and domestic abuse.

Published data on the number of cases of stalking, harassment and sexual offences at criminal courts can be found in the Outcomes by Offence data tool published here: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2024.

Data held centrally by the Ministry of Justice does not include detailed information about victims of offences and the nature of the offence. Therefore, information on some violence against women and girls and domestic abuse cases can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the definition of violence against women and girls.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government’s definition of violence against women and girls (VAWG) covers violence and abuse which disproportionately, but not exclusively, affect women and girls. Crimes and behaviours include sexual offences, domestic abuse, stalking and harassment and can occur online, as well as offline. This is evidenced by prevalence data that shows women and girls are far more likely to experience these crimes.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of prolonged imprisonment on the (a) mental health and (b) prospects for safe release of prisoners serving imprisonment for public protection sentences; and what steps her Department is taking to support those prisoners who have served more than 10 years beyond their tariff.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the average length of time Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners spent in custody following recall. The most recent data can be found in Table 5.Q.11: licence-recalls-Apr-to-June-2024.ods.

The figures from the latest publication on the last five quarters of available data have been provided below:

Where an offender on an IPP licence is recalled to custody, the Secretary of State must refer the offender to the Parole Board, and the Board will conduct a review in order to determine whether the offender may be safely re-released. The Ministry of Justice, HMPPS and the Parole Board are working together to improve the efficiency of the parole system, including with a view to ensuring that the Board completes post-recall reviews as quickly as possible.

Following commencement of the majority of IPP provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 on 1 November 2024, and as an alternative to review by the Parole Board, the Secretary of State now has a power to release recalled IPP prisoners – without the need for a release decision by the Parole Board – following a process known as Risk Assessed Recall Review (RARR). The Secretary of State must apply the same test as the Parole Board and therefore, must be satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that they should stay in prison.

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the number of IPP prisoners and IPP offenders under probation supervision as part of its quarterly Offender Management Statistics publication. Prison figures can be found under ‘Prison Population’ in Table 1.Q.14 and community figures can be found under ‘Probation’ in Table 6.13: Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK. The figures from the last five years of available data have been provided below.

Table 1. Shows the number of IPP prisoners, at end of period, September 2020 to September 2024, England and Wales.

Table 2. Shows the number of offenders serving IPP sentences in the community on licence, at end of period, June 2020 to June 2024, England and Wales.

Please note:

(1) Includes offenders serving a Detention for Public Protection (DPP) sentence who are defined in the data as offenders serving an IPP sentence, but were aged under 18 at the time of sentencing.

(2) The data pipeline used to compile the figures in this table has been updated. This change was introduced from June 2024. More details can be found in the 'Probation data process transition' section of Chapter 6 of the Offender Management Statistics quarterly publication, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2024.

The Government is committed to ensuring that implementation of the IPP Action Plan and its initiatives safely reduce the IPP population both in custody and the community, whilst still prioritising public protection.

On 1 November 2024, the Government implemented the first phase of IPP provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, which saw licences terminated for 1,742 IPP offenders in the community. In addition to this, around 600 people will be referred to the Parole Board for consideration of licence termination on the commencement of phase two on 1 February 2025. We anticipate that these changes, once fully implemented, will reduce the number of people serving IPP sentences in the community by around two-thirds.

The Government recognises the specific challenges faced by those serving IPP sentences. We are committed to improving outcomes for individuals with mental health needs, including IPP prisoners, and recognise the importance of providing the right interventions at the right time. This is reflected in the National Partnership Agreement on Health and Social Care in England which was published in 2023, which sets out a shared priority workplan to deliver safe, decent and effective care for offenders in prison and the community. The Chief Medical Officer has agreed to the Lord Chancellor’s request to consider the IPP sentence as part of his independent review of offender health.

Health and justice partners provide an equivalent standard, range and quality of healthcare in prisons to that available in the community. If a prisoner has a severe mental health need to an extent that detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 may be appropriate, they will be referred and assessed by qualified clinicians to determine whether to transfer to a mental health hospital is warranted.

HMPPS operates a traffic light system for all never-released IPP offenders to identify those who are struggling to progress through their sentence plan, so that resources can be directed to offenders who need it most. HMPPS is rolling this system out to all IPP offenders, including those recalled to custody and those on licence in the community, in the first quarter of 2025.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Imprisonment for Public Protection prisoners were (a) in custody and (b) in the community on licence in each of the last five years; and what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of these trends.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the average length of time Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners spent in custody following recall. The most recent data can be found in Table 5.Q.11: licence-recalls-Apr-to-June-2024.ods.

The figures from the latest publication on the last five quarters of available data have been provided below:

Where an offender on an IPP licence is recalled to custody, the Secretary of State must refer the offender to the Parole Board, and the Board will conduct a review in order to determine whether the offender may be safely re-released. The Ministry of Justice, HMPPS and the Parole Board are working together to improve the efficiency of the parole system, including with a view to ensuring that the Board completes post-recall reviews as quickly as possible.

Following commencement of the majority of IPP provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 on 1 November 2024, and as an alternative to review by the Parole Board, the Secretary of State now has a power to release recalled IPP prisoners – without the need for a release decision by the Parole Board – following a process known as Risk Assessed Recall Review (RARR). The Secretary of State must apply the same test as the Parole Board and therefore, must be satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that they should stay in prison.

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the number of IPP prisoners and IPP offenders under probation supervision as part of its quarterly Offender Management Statistics publication. Prison figures can be found under ‘Prison Population’ in Table 1.Q.14 and community figures can be found under ‘Probation’ in Table 6.13: Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK. The figures from the last five years of available data have been provided below.

Table 1. Shows the number of IPP prisoners, at end of period, September 2020 to September 2024, England and Wales.

Table 2. Shows the number of offenders serving IPP sentences in the community on licence, at end of period, June 2020 to June 2024, England and Wales.

Please note:

(1) Includes offenders serving a Detention for Public Protection (DPP) sentence who are defined in the data as offenders serving an IPP sentence, but were aged under 18 at the time of sentencing.

(2) The data pipeline used to compile the figures in this table has been updated. This change was introduced from June 2024. More details can be found in the 'Probation data process transition' section of Chapter 6 of the Offender Management Statistics quarterly publication, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2024.

The Government is committed to ensuring that implementation of the IPP Action Plan and its initiatives safely reduce the IPP population both in custody and the community, whilst still prioritising public protection.

On 1 November 2024, the Government implemented the first phase of IPP provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, which saw licences terminated for 1,742 IPP offenders in the community. In addition to this, around 600 people will be referred to the Parole Board for consideration of licence termination on the commencement of phase two on 1 February 2025. We anticipate that these changes, once fully implemented, will reduce the number of people serving IPP sentences in the community by around two-thirds.

The Government recognises the specific challenges faced by those serving IPP sentences. We are committed to improving outcomes for individuals with mental health needs, including IPP prisoners, and recognise the importance of providing the right interventions at the right time. This is reflected in the National Partnership Agreement on Health and Social Care in England which was published in 2023, which sets out a shared priority workplan to deliver safe, decent and effective care for offenders in prison and the community. The Chief Medical Officer has agreed to the Lord Chancellor’s request to consider the IPP sentence as part of his independent review of offender health.

Health and justice partners provide an equivalent standard, range and quality of healthcare in prisons to that available in the community. If a prisoner has a severe mental health need to an extent that detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 may be appropriate, they will be referred and assessed by qualified clinicians to determine whether to transfer to a mental health hospital is warranted.

HMPPS operates a traffic light system for all never-released IPP offenders to identify those who are struggling to progress through their sentence plan, so that resources can be directed to offenders who need it most. HMPPS is rolling this system out to all IPP offenders, including those recalled to custody and those on licence in the community, in the first quarter of 2025.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons was there a reduction in Parole Board oral review hearings for imprisonment for public protection prisoners between (a) 2018-19 and (b) 2022-23; and what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of hearings.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

In 2018/19 there were 1,317 review oral hearings for IPP prisoners and in 2022/23 there were 792, a reduction of 40%. During a similar period, the unreleased IPP prisoner population reduced from 2,491 on 31 December 2018 to 1,227 on 31 December 2023, a reduction of 51%. As such, the number of IPP oral hearings has reduced by a smaller proportion than the reduction in the IPP prisoner population.

The Parole Board has taken a number of steps to continue to progress those IPPs referred for a parole review, where it is safe to do so, including:

• prioritising indeterminate prisoners, over determinate sentenced prisoners, when listing their oral hearings; and
• giving a future oral hearing date to over two thirds of the IPP prisoners who require an oral hearing, to allow professionals additional notice to prepare for the parole review and give the prisoner a date to work towards.

Officials in the Ministry of Justice, HMPPS and the Parole Board are working closely together to ensure the parole system is working as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time imprisonment for public protection prisoners spend in custody following a recall; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of extended recall periods on trends in successful re-release rates.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the average length of time Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) prisoners spent in custody following recall. The most recent data can be found in Table 5.Q.11: licence-recalls-Apr-to-June-2024.ods.

The figures from the latest publication on the last five quarters of available data have been provided below:

Where an offender on an IPP licence is recalled to custody, the Secretary of State must refer the offender to the Parole Board, and the Board will conduct a review in order to determine whether the offender may be safely re-released. The Ministry of Justice, HMPPS and the Parole Board are working together to improve the efficiency of the parole system, including with a view to ensuring that the Board completes post-recall reviews as quickly as possible.

Following commencement of the majority of IPP provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 on 1 November 2024, and as an alternative to review by the Parole Board, the Secretary of State now has a power to release recalled IPP prisoners – without the need for a release decision by the Parole Board – following a process known as Risk Assessed Recall Review (RARR). The Secretary of State must apply the same test as the Parole Board and therefore, must be satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that they should stay in prison.

The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on the number of IPP prisoners and IPP offenders under probation supervision as part of its quarterly Offender Management Statistics publication. Prison figures can be found under ‘Prison Population’ in Table 1.Q.14 and community figures can be found under ‘Probation’ in Table 6.13: Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK. The figures from the last five years of available data have been provided below.

Table 1. Shows the number of IPP prisoners, at end of period, September 2020 to September 2024, England and Wales.

Table 2. Shows the number of offenders serving IPP sentences in the community on licence, at end of period, June 2020 to June 2024, England and Wales.

Please note:

(1) Includes offenders serving a Detention for Public Protection (DPP) sentence who are defined in the data as offenders serving an IPP sentence, but were aged under 18 at the time of sentencing.

(2) The data pipeline used to compile the figures in this table has been updated. This change was introduced from June 2024. More details can be found in the 'Probation data process transition' section of Chapter 6 of the Offender Management Statistics quarterly publication, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2024.

The Government is committed to ensuring that implementation of the IPP Action Plan and its initiatives safely reduce the IPP population both in custody and the community, whilst still prioritising public protection.

On 1 November 2024, the Government implemented the first phase of IPP provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, which saw licences terminated for 1,742 IPP offenders in the community. In addition to this, around 600 people will be referred to the Parole Board for consideration of licence termination on the commencement of phase two on 1 February 2025. We anticipate that these changes, once fully implemented, will reduce the number of people serving IPP sentences in the community by around two-thirds.

The Government recognises the specific challenges faced by those serving IPP sentences. We are committed to improving outcomes for individuals with mental health needs, including IPP prisoners, and recognise the importance of providing the right interventions at the right time. This is reflected in the National Partnership Agreement on Health and Social Care in England which was published in 2023, which sets out a shared priority workplan to deliver safe, decent and effective care for offenders in prison and the community. The Chief Medical Officer has agreed to the Lord Chancellor’s request to consider the IPP sentence as part of his independent review of offender health.

Health and justice partners provide an equivalent standard, range and quality of healthcare in prisons to that available in the community. If a prisoner has a severe mental health need to an extent that detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 may be appropriate, they will be referred and assessed by qualified clinicians to determine whether to transfer to a mental health hospital is warranted.

HMPPS operates a traffic light system for all never-released IPP offenders to identify those who are struggling to progress through their sentence plan, so that resources can be directed to offenders who need it most. HMPPS is rolling this system out to all IPP offenders, including those recalled to custody and those on licence in the community, in the first quarter of 2025.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the reoffending rates are of (a) former Imprisonment for Public Protection prisoners following the termination of their licence period, (b) the general prison population and (c) prisoners released under the revised early release scheme since August 2024.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

Reoffending rates for offenders released from an IPP sentence are measured from the point of prison release in line with the published methodology, not from the point of licence termination. The latest proven reoffending rate for offenders released from an IPP sentence was 8.4% in 2021/22.

The proven reoffending rate for the adult cohort who were released from custody was 37.0% in 2021/22.

The number of people who have reoffended following release under the early release scheme (SDS40) forms a subset of prison releases data which is scheduled for future publication. In accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, we are not permitted to give any early indication of the contents of this statistical report.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has had recent discussions with Cabinet colleagues on developing a strategy for preventing violence and abuse against older people.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Government is clear that violence and abuse towards anybody is unacceptable. Though anyone can suffer from domestic abuse, for older victims, abuse may be more disguised or compounded by other age-related factors such as ill health. I have had meetings on these issues with the specialist domestic abuse sector, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and Ministerial counterparts as part of the Government’s agenda to protect victims.

The Home Office has funded Hourglass, a specialist elder abuse charity, for a number of years to enhance their helpline, provide casework support, and train specialist Independent Domestic Violence Advisers. We are committed to halving violence against women and girls in a decade, which includes reducing the prevalence of domestic abuse against all victims.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the prevalence of economic abuse of older people.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Economic abuse is recognised as a form of abusive behaviour under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. This Government is committed to halving violence against women and girls, including domestic abuse, in a decade. Though the Department does not hold prevalence data for economic abuse specifically, I have had several meetings with the specialist domestic abuse sector and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, and am due to speak to Ministerial colleagues specifically on this issue.

In addition, the Department for Health and Social Care oversees The Care Act 2014, which makes it clear that local authorities have a statutory duty to investigate safeguarding concerns. Since April 2023, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have had a duty to assess local authorities’ delivery of their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2024.

Found: parliamentary group; or from the International Development Committee; or have had an interest, such as Helen Grant