Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference HM Inspectorate of Probation' report entitled A thematic inspection of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) recall decisions, published in December 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing fixed-term recalls for some people on IPP sentences.
Answered by Edward Argar
In her December 2023 report, the then Chief Inspector of Probation suggested exploring options that may allow more prompt release of IPPs including using Fixed Term Recall (FTR), to reduce the uncertainty and despair felt by many after recall.
This Government is taking action to curtail IPP licence periods and provide for automatic licence termination in specific circumstances to give rehabilitated people the opportunity to move on with their lives, while continuing to make sure the public are protected from the most serious offenders, through multiple measures included in the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
Case law dictates that to recall an indeterminate sentence prisoner there must be a causal connection to the original offending so you cannot recall an indeterminate sentence offender unless you consider there is a risk similar to the one when they committed the index offence. Based on this, the government believes it is very unlikely that an IPP prisoner would meet the test to be considered for FTR i.e. that they would not be a serious risk to the public if re-released after 14 or 28 days.
Instead, the Government has tabled amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill which will enable the Secretary of State to release a recalled IPP offender following Risk Assessed Recall Review (RARR) without the need for a Parole review when he considers it is in the interests of justice to do so.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prisoners serving an imprisonment for public protection and (b) other prisoners have been released on compassionate grounds in each year since 2005.
Answered by Edward Argar
We have taken significant action through the Victim’s and Prisoner Bill to curtail IPP licence periods to give offenders the opportunity to move on with their lives. In addition to these changes, the actions this Government is taking are working: the number of prisoners serving the IPP sentence who have never been released now stands at 1,180 as of 31 March, down from more than 6,000 in 2012.
The Secretary of State has a statutory power to grant the early release of prisoners serving a sentence or term of imprisonment in custody on compassionate grounds. The power is used in exceptional circumstances only and in accordance with the HMPPS the Early Release on Compassionate Grounds Policy Framework.
Early release on compassionate grounds may, for example, be considered for terminally ill prisoners with a diagnosis of limited time left to live, and where there is medical advice that their end-of-life palliative care needs would be better met in a hospice. Compassionate release of such individuals is only approved if a risk assessment confirms they are safe to release.
The table shows the number of prisoners released early on compassionate grounds from 2010 to 2023. Data prior to 2010 is not available in a useable format and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Calendar year | IPP | Other | Total |
2010 | 0 | 8 | 8 |
2011 | 0 | 6 | 6 |
2012 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
2013 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
2014 | 1 | 9 | 10 |
2015 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
2016 | 0 | 14 | 14 |
2017 | 1 | 7 | 8 |
2018 | 1 | 16 | 17 |
2019 | 0 | 11 | 11 |
2020 | 1 | 12 | 13 |
2021 | 0 | 11 | 11 |
2022 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
2023 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence have been transferred from prison to secure hospitals on mental health grounds in each year since 2020.
Answered by Edward Argar
Under sections 47/49 of the Mental Health Act 1983, the Secretary of State may authorise by warrant the transfer of sentenced prisoners to a mental health hospital, where he is satisfied that the criteria for detention are met by the aforementioned Act. Thereby, and for the duration of the period in hospital, the transferred prisoner becomes what is known as a restricted patient.
The requested data in the tables below are taken from an electronic casework system. Snapshot data of restricted patients in hospital are available only at the end of each year. We have provided this information in Table 1 for 2019-2022. We are unable to recreate snapshot data, for the start of each of the last 20 quarters, due to limitations of the case management system.
Table 1: Population of offenders serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) detained in hospital as a restricted patient on 31 December in each year from 2019-2023.
Year | Population of IPP Restricted Patients |
2019 | 272 |
2020 | 276 |
2021 | 292 |
2022 | 262 |
2023 | 241 |
Table 2: The number of offenders serving an IPP sentence who have been transferred from prison to secure hospitals on mental health grounds in each year since 2020.
Year | Number of transfers |
2020 | 56 |
2021 | 41 |
2022 | 44 |
2023 | 37 |
Notes
Data Source: Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD)
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people serving an imprisonment for a Public Protection sentence were held in secure hospitals at the start of the last 20 quarters.
Answered by Edward Argar
Under sections 47/49 of the Mental Health Act 1983, the Secretary of State may authorise by warrant the transfer of sentenced prisoners to a mental health hospital, where he is satisfied that the criteria for detention are met by the aforementioned Act. Thereby, and for the duration of the period in hospital, the transferred prisoner becomes what is known as a restricted patient.
The requested data in the tables below are taken from an electronic casework system. Snapshot data of restricted patients in hospital are available only at the end of each year. We have provided this information in Table 1 for 2019-2022. We are unable to recreate snapshot data, for the start of each of the last 20 quarters, due to limitations of the case management system.
Table 1: Population of offenders serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) detained in hospital as a restricted patient on 31 December in each year from 2019-2023.
Year | Population of IPP Restricted Patients |
2019 | 272 |
2020 | 276 |
2021 | 292 |
2022 | 262 |
2023 | 241 |
Table 2: The number of offenders serving an IPP sentence who have been transferred from prison to secure hospitals on mental health grounds in each year since 2020.
Year | Number of transfers |
2020 | 56 |
2021 | 41 |
2022 | 44 |
2023 | 37 |
Notes
Data Source: Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD)
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence on licence in the community took their own life in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar
The number of self-inflicted deaths of offenders serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence on licence in the community in England and Wales in each year between April 2019 and March 2023 are shown in the table.
Self-inflicted deaths of offenders serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence supervised on licence in the community, financial year 2019/20 to 2022/23, England and Wales (1) (2) (3)
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 (p) |
Total | 6 | 11 | 9 | 7 |
(p) The 2022/23 figures are provisional and may be updated in future publications to account for any changes or additions to the data since they were originally collected.
1. Apparent cause is as reported in annual returns (prior to 2020/21 only) or the national Delius case management system (nDelius) and has not been independently verified.
2. The reporting period relates to when the death occurred.
3. A new set of death classifications was implemented on 1 April 2022 and, as such, figures for 2022/23 are not comparable to those presented for previous years. The category of 'self-inflicted death' up to 31 March 2022 includes any death of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life, irrespective of intent. The category of 'self-inflicted death' from 1 April 2022 includes any death of a person at their own hand, including where intent is undetermined. This includes some drug poisonings (e.g. where a suicide note is found or the circumstances are suspicious) but not drug poisonings which appear to have been the accidental result of consumption for another purpose. Refer to the guide to deaths of offenders supervised in the community statistics for further details about the new set of classifications.
The information for the period before April 2019 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to home ownership schemes funded through Homes England, whether his Department collects data on the (a) number of households in shared ownership or rent to buy properties, (b) income of tenants, (c) number of tenants that have transitioned to full ownership under shared ownership and rent to buy and (d) number of years tenants rented their homes for before purchase.
Answered by Lee Rowley
Information on the number of shared owners who have staircased to full ownership is publicly available from our live tables on social housing sales.
The department collects information on the number of households living in Shared Ownership homes via the English Housing Survey.
It is not possible to distinguish between Rent to Buy – Shared Ownership and other Shared Ownership products in these datasets.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of households have transitioned to full ownership under (a) Shared Ownership and (b) Rent to Buy schemes funded by Homes England.
Answered by Lee Rowley
Information on the number of shared owners who have staircased to full ownership is publicly available from our live tables on social housing sales.
The department collects information on the number of households living in Shared Ownership homes via the English Housing Survey.
It is not possible to distinguish between Rent to Buy – Shared Ownership and other Shared Ownership products in these datasets.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it remains his Department's policy to increase the total sum of money eligible per person via the disabled facilities grant.
Answered by Helen Whately
Local areas already have the discretion to make grants above the current upper limit on a case-by-case basis, or in line with a locally published housing assistance policy. As with all aspects of the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), the Government will continue to keep the upper limit under review.
The Next steps to put People at the Heart of Care plan announced a further £102 million for housing adaptation support, £50 million in 2023/24 and £52 million in 2024/25. This is in addition to the £573 million per year which is already available for the DFG. The increase will enable local areas to fund minor home adaptations and other supplementary services that will help people stay independent, and support hospital discharge.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of homes that were planned to be built to meet Requirement M4(2) of the Building Regulations (a) have been completed and (b) did not proceed past the viability stage of planning applications in each of the last two years.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The English Housing Survey collects data on accessibility and adaptations within the home; the most recent report is published online.
New build homes are constructed to meet Building Regulations accessibility standards in force at the time of build; the most recent data on new build home rates was published by Office for National Statistics on 30 January 2024.
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out that local authorities should assess the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community. It is for local planning authorities to assess local needs, including needs for older people and people with disabilities, and make provision in their local plans.
Asked by: Kate Hollern (Labour - Blackburn)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what data his Department holds on the number of disabled people living in temporary accommodation.
Answered by Felicity Buchan
The most recent Statutory homelessness statistics (April- June 2023) is available at Homelessness statistics which includes households that are owed a homelessness duty due to their support needs, including those with a disability.