Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress his Department has made on expanding the availability of 12-week transitional accommodation for prison leavers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The transitional Community Accommodation Service-Tier 3 (CAS3) was launched in 2021, initially in five probation regions, providing up to 12 weeks' accommodation on release, with support to move on to settled accommodation. Between 1 July 2021 and 17 June 2022, over 2,300 individuals, who would have otherwise been homeless, were accepted on to CAS3.
We expanded the service to cover Wales in June 2022, and are now in the process of extending it to the remaining six probation regions in England, to support the thousands of offenders who leave prison homeless.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide a breakdown of what the £200 million allocated by his Department to be spent on prisoner rehabilitation each year by 2024-25 will be spent on; and how that spending will be measured.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As set out in our Prisons Strategy White Paper, we are building on the £50 million investment made in 2021 by spending £200 million a year by 2024-25 on reducing reoffending. We will spend this on improving prison leavers’ access to accommodation, by transforming education in prisons and how we get offenders into work, substance misuse treatment and further measures for early intervention to tackle youth offending.
We will set plans out in further detail when our Outcome Delivery Plan 2022-25 is published, in the coming months.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress he has made on supporting offenders into employment following their release from prison.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are delivering on our commitments in the recent Prisons Strategy White Paper to improve employment outcomes for prison leavers:
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of regulating privately owned natural burial grounds.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Guidance on the operation of natural burial grounds and cemeteries is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/natural-burial-ground-guidance-for-operators. The Government anticipates that those operating private burial grounds will adhere to the standards and principles underpinning the framework of regulation and guidance which applies to local authority burial grounds.
The Law Commission’s current Programme of Law Reform includes a project to consider modernising and streamlining the law governing the disposal of human remains, with a view to putting forward a legal framework for the future.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure his Department's estate delivers (a) effective public services and (b) value for money.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We continue to keep our estate under review to ensure it delivers effective public services and value for money. We have already launched the most ambitious prison building programme for generations, delivering over 13,000 places by the mid-2020s, and have dramatically increased the use of technology in the courts system. An extra £285m of improvements to courts and prisons will be made this year as part of the plan for economic recovery announced by the Prime Minister. This extra spending will keep thousands of people in work and generate jobs for thousands more, helping the UK recover from the economic freeze brought on by coronavirus. These improvements will also help to speed up justice through the courts and improve education in prisons and youth custody so that offenders leave less likely to reoffend.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions his Department has had with (a) the Family Justice Council and (b) other stakeholders on the use of Mesher Orders in divorce cases.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
There is guidance on Mesher Orders within the Family Justice Council’s Guidance on “Financial Needs” on Divorce (April 2018 – 2nd edition.). This was produced following the Law Commission’s recommendation in 2014 that the Family Justice Council prepare guidance on “financial needs” on divorce. The Department has not had recent discussions with the Family Justice Council or other stakeholders about Mesher Orders.
During the passage of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill through Parliament, the Government committed to set up a Lord Chancellor’s working group to conduct a review of the law of financial provision on divorce. This review will be led by the evidence, which is yet to be gathered, on whether there are problems with the current law and, if so, how these might be addressed. The Ministry of Justice is now considering terms of reference and membership of the working group. The Government will seek to ensure that the working group has a balance of members from across different professions.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has for the regulation of enforcement agents by an independent body.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Ministry of Justice is currently reviewing the implementation of reforms, contained in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 and introduced in 2014, which govern how enforcement agents (bailiffs) enforce debt. We held a call for evidence to inform our review, which ran from November 2018 to February 2019.
In a Written Ministerial Statement made on 22 July 2019, the Department set out its initial response to the call for evidence. We said that we would consider further how regulation of the sector might be strengthened, but we are clear that any further regulation must be effective, proportionate and sustainable.
We will respond in full to the call for evidence in due course.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to help reduce rates of prisoner re-offending.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This Government is committed to reducing reoffending by ensuring that all offenders have the tools they need to turn their backs on crime. The current proven reoffending rate is 28.7%.
We know that offenders typically have needs in a range of areas, such as education, employment, accommodation and family relationships. Many of these needs drive offending and the prison and probation system provides an opportunity to address them.
We have recently overhauled the prison education system, giving governors more control over the education budget for their establishments, and have implemented two new prison education frameworks. Additionally, the new Prison Education Service will build on this by improving the range of training available to prisoners which is directly linked to real jobs on release. We are also engaging with employers to take on ex-prisoners via the New Futures Network (NFN) and in May 2019 we introduced reforms to increase the opportunities available to prisoners to gain experience in real workplaces through Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL).
We are investing up to £6.4m in an accommodation pilot scheme to support individuals released from three prisons: Bristol, Leeds and Pentonville. Services have now commenced in all three areas, with the first individuals now being supported into accommodation following release.
We are also making positive progress in implementing the recommendations as set out by Lord Farmer’s review on the importance of family engagement to reduce reoffending and we have delivered 13 out of the 19 recommendations to date.
Although much is being done to reduce reoffending, this remains a complex issue that requires a combined effort across government and local partners in order to support ex-offenders when they are released.