Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in category A prisons are categorized as C category prisoners.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There are 108 prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in Category A prisons.
There are * prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in Category A prisons which are categorised as C category prisoners. (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in category A prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There are 108 prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in Category A prisons.
There are * prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in Category A prisons which are categorised as C category prisoners. (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2023 to Question 193050 on Prisons: Crimes of Violence, what weighting is given to the rate of (a) prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and (b) assaults on staff relative to other KPIs when assigning annual prison performance ratings.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
For the performance year 2022/23, we will publish the Annual Prisons Performance Ratings on 27 July 2023. This publication will provide the weightings given to a wide range of KPIs used by the framework that enables us to monitor the performance of the prison system, including prisoner on prisoner assaults and assaults on staff. The weightings will be published in the publication guidance documentation.
Performance targets were not set for individual prisons for 2021-22 because prisons were still recovering from the pandemic, however, HMPPS still monitored performance in order to drive continuous improvement.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2023 to Question 193050 on Prisons: Crimes of Violence, if he will provide the 2021-22 Prisons Performance Framework target levels for each prison for the KPIs of (a) prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and (b) assaults on staff.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
For the performance year 2022/23, we will publish the Annual Prisons Performance Ratings on 27 July 2023. This publication will provide the weightings given to a wide range of KPIs used by the framework that enables us to monitor the performance of the prison system, including prisoner on prisoner assaults and assaults on staff. The weightings will be published in the publication guidance documentation.
Performance targets were not set for individual prisons for 2021-22 because prisons were still recovering from the pandemic, however, HMPPS still monitored performance in order to drive continuous improvement.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State on 4 July 2023, Official Report, Col. 760, if he will list the key performance indicators used to measure violence in prisons; and whether his Department plans to introduce any sanctions for prison operators failing to meet these targets.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Prison governors and senior leaders use a variety of measures to understand violence within prisons. The 2021/2022 Prisons Performance Framework (PPT) rated the performance of all public and private sector prisons in England and Wales. It contains two violence Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which prisons are assessed against. These are:
These are available on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-ratings-2021-to-2022. The prison performance ratings for 2022/2023 will be published on 27 July 2023.
HMPPS monitors performance against these KPIs on an ongoing basis and takes action if this is deemed necessary.
Private prison contracts are managed by operational contract managers who assure delivery against performance and contract measures.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for computers, phone calls and other technical support to allow women in prison to engage with local authorities.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we recognise that prisoner-facing technology can be transformative, including in supporting women with their rehabilitation and preparation for resettlement. To date, we have invested widely in prisoner communication, including rolling out video calling technology in July 2020 and email-reply systems in Autumn 2020 in all women’s prisons. We also completed the roll out of in-cell telephony in all closed women's prisons in June 2021. In addition, as part of family contracts, all women’s prisons have Family Engagement Workers who will work with and facilitate engagement with local authorities. In the longer-term, we aim to pilot employing social workers in women’s prisons.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will review sentencing for women including potential alternatives to short-term sentences for non-violent offences.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
We remain committed to the vision in the Female Offender Strategy, which set out our priorities to achieve better outcomes for female offenders, including fewer women coming into the criminal justice system and fewer women in custody (especially on short-term sentences) and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully.
Since publication in June 2018, the number of women entering the criminal justice system has fallen by 30%. We are investing millions of pounds over the next 3 years into community services such as women’s centres, drug rehabilitation and accommodation support so fewer women end up in prison.
We also have several initiatives underway to improve community sentencing options to tackle low-level offending, divert women from custody, and reduce reoffending. This includes several pilots such as the Residential women’s centre pilot, with the first in Wales, Problem-Solving Courts for women, and a Pre-Sentence Report pilot that is targeting fuller reports for women.
Of course, where female offenders are found guilty of committing criminal offences, it is for our independent judiciary to determine the appropriate sentence in the usual way.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to agree and implement a Women’s Prison Release Protocol with co-signatories to the London Blueprint for Women in contact with the Criminal Justice System.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
My officials engage regularly with the Mayor’s Office for Crime and Policing, including attending the Blueprint Delivery Group. As set out in the Concordat we encourage the creation of Whole System Approaches that will improve partnership working locally.
In the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we committed to developing a resettlement passport, which will bring together the key information and services that an individual needs for successful resettlement into society. The passport will be a practical and personalised tool that organises, plans and records the information and services needed to support prison leavers’ resettlement, alongside providing information to professionals working with them. We recognise the needs of women differ and resettlement passports will help prisons move further towards a more personalised and integrated approach based on the individual needs of the offender. We will engage with stakeholders throughout the development and implementation of the passport to ensure it is effective and fit for purpose.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Procurement Policy Note 04/20: Recovery and Transition from COVID-19, published on 9 June 2020, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of maintaining the provision of contractual relief as a result of covid-19 in line with Procurement Policy Notice 02/20; which (a) companies and (b) work areas will be affected by changes to that contractual relief; and what the timeframe is for proposals to change that contractual relief.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice has reviewed Procurement Policy Note 04/20 and maintenance of the provisions within that will continue to be provided as appropriate and on a case by case basis. We will continue to monitor the suppliers currently in receipt of the relief under the measures and we are working with them on individual transition plans to move out of the relief period by the end of October as set out in the Policy Note.
The Department is working closely with suppliers that are not currently in receipt of any relief measures to provide support and avoid them getting into any financial difficulty.
The Department considers the identity and category of those suppliers in receipt of the relief measure to be commercially sensitive information.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the pay (a) minimum and (b) maximum is for each civil service grade in his Department below the Senior Civil Service (i) inside and (ii) outside the London area.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We have provided pay information for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and for Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).
MoJ
The 2019 MoJ pay award was effective from 1 August 2019.
The employee groups covered in this pay award include staff directly employed by the MoJ in Band A – F (Civil Service equivalent G6 – AA) in MoJ Headquarters, Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), Legal Aid Agency (LAA), Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), and Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).
Pay information:
Grade | Min. Salary | Max. Salary | Min. Salary | Max. Salary |
AA (MoJ Band F) | £17,988 | £20,599 | £16,680 | £17,777 |
AO (MoJ Band E) | £21,298 | £25,009 | £18,884 | £22,101 |
EO (MoJ Band D) | £24,436 | £31,202 | £21,170 | £27,678 |
HEO (MoJ Band C) | £28,597 | £38,373 | £24,002 | £34,105 |
SEO (MoJ Band B) | £34,818 | £47,591 | £30,989 | £41,095 |
MoJ Band A | £48,354 | £71,411 | £43,958 | £63,831 |
Grade 7 | £48,354 | £63,500 | £43,958 | £59,000 |
Grade 6 | £56,421 | £76,000 | £52,119 | £72,000 |
HMPPS
The 2019 HMPPS pay review was effective from 1st April 2019 for staff in Public Sector Prisons/Prisons HQ and also for staff in the National Probation Service (NPS).
The employee groups covered in the pay award include:
Treasury Equivalent | F&S Equivalent | Closed Grade (Pre-F&S) Name Equivalent (Summarised) |
AA | Band 1** | Support Band 2 Cleaner |
Band 2 | AA | |
AO | Band 3 | AO Personal Secretary |
EO | Band 4 | EO Senior Personal Secretary |
HEO | Band 5 | Manager G |
Band 6 | ||
SEO | Band 7 | Manager F |
Band 8 | Manager E | |
Grade 7 | Band 9 | Senior Manager D |
Grade 6 | Band 10 | Senior Manager C |
N/A | Band 11 | Senior Manager A |
Senior Manager B |
HMPPS Fair & Sustainable (F&S) pay structures
Due to the complex and diverse workforce in prisons, roles are assessed under the Job Evaluation Scheme (JES) and linked to a specific Band within the pay structures. Please the below grade equivalency details:
Band | Min of National | Max of National | Min of Outer London | Max of Outer London | Min of Inner London | Max of Inner London |
Band 1 |
| £15,857 |
| £18,516 |
| £19,903 |
Band 2 |
| £17,175 |
| £19,834 |
| £21221 |
Band 3 | £19,054 | £21,183 | £21,448 | £23,842 | £22,695 | £25,229 |
Band 4 | £24,018 | £26,713 | £26,410 | £29,372 | £27,658 | £30,759 |
Band 5 | £27,021 | £28,349 | £29,385 | £33,074 | £30,618 | 24,461 |
Band 6 | £31,145 | £35,819 | £33,458 | £38,477 | £34,662 | £39,864 |
Band 7 | £37,218 | £42,800 | £39,531 | £45,459 | £40,737 | £46,846 |
Band 8 | £41,586 | £49,906 | £43,802 | £52,565 | £44,958 | £53,952 |
Band 9 | £53,267 | £63,920 | £55,483 | £66,579 | £56,639 | £67,966 |
Band 10 | £58,636 | £70,367 | £60,852 | £73,026 | £62,008 | £74,413 |
Band 11 | £66,328 | £79,594 | £68,544 | £82,253 | £69,700 | £83,640 |
HMPPS closed world structures
Under the closed world structures there was a no zonal pay but a National rate of pay with specific sites receiving a Local Pay Allowance (LPA).
Grade | Minimum | Maximum |
Senior Manager A | £68,189 | £87,274 |
Senior Manager B | £64,205 | £84,712 |
Senior Manager C | £59,931 | £76,290 |
Senior Manager D | £49,742 | £65,907 |
Manager E | £35,098 | £48,458 |
Manager F | £31,255 | £41,106 |
Manager G | £26,433 | £33,839 |
Executive Officer | £23,349 | £27,394 |
Senior Personal Secretary | £23,349 | £26,597 |
Administrative Officer | £16,639 | £22,674 |
Personal Secretary | £17,091 | £22,674 |
Administrative Assistant | £15,489 | £16,262 |