Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 4 January (HL4280), what meetings they have had about the development of the assurace and compliance process for the future delivery of chaplaincies in prisons; and which faith leaders have been involved in any such discussions.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The future of the Assurance and Compliance process for Chaplaincy will be discussed with those Faith Advisers who sit on Chaplaincy Council at the joint meeting with the Chaplaincy HQ Team on the 12th June 2018. This will be followed by an invitation for those Faith Advisers not present at the meeting to comment by post or email.
We recognise the importance of faith and the positive impact that it can have on the lives of offenders, which is why there are multi-faith chaplaincy teams in every prison.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the current requirement for a prisoner to receive a pastoral visit from a chaplain within 24 hours of requesting one will be carried into any future policy framework.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Whilst the future policy framework(s) in relation to chaplaincy have not yet been agreed, HM Government recognises the value of the pastoral care offered by Chaplains. Any new policy will ensure such care is available in a timely manner which reflects its importance in the overall care of those in prison.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish further details about plans to cancel all prison service instructions and replace them with a national policy framework.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Government has reviewed all existing prison service operational polices and started the process of either cancelling these where they are no longer relevant, or replacing them with Policy Frameworks. Policy Frameworks will contain clear minimum mandatory requirements to ensure a safe, decent and lawful prison system, with consistency across the estate where necessary. To date, under the Government’s deregulation programme, 212 operational prison polices have been cancelled.
Policy Frameworks are currently being developed in a number of areas under a rolling programme. We expect to publish several Policy Frameworks during 2018/19, including those which contain the key levers for prison reform and the rehabilitation of offenders. Policy Frameworks will be published on the Government’s website, in line with the practice for existing prison operational policies.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to guarantee the continued provision of quality assured chaplaincy services to every prison in England and Wales by continuing the guidelines Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners (PSI 05/2016) and including those guidelines in any future prison policy frameworks.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
PSI 05/2016 Faith and Pastoral Care of Prisoners is not in the first tranche of PSIs to be deregulated. When it is replaced by a Policy Framework I am confident that Governors will have the guidance they need to ensure the delivery of chaplaincy services that meet the pastoral and faith needs of prisoners. Discussions are already under way to see how the present Assurance and Compliance quality assurance process may be developed to support delivery of chaplaincy services in the future.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ensure that overcrowding does not restrict prisoners' access to chaplaincy services; and whether they intend to include such access in future performance measures.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Prison Safety and Reform White paper set out a range of performance measures so that the performance of prisons is judged on the results they deliver rather than just compliance with processes. Access to Chaplaincy services is not currently included in these measures. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service seek to ensure that prisoners have access to chaplaincy services in accordance with PSI 5/2016 (Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners). Overcrowding in and of itself would not restrict access to chaplaincy services.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to implement a systematic and quality assured communications gateway to enable prison staff to work with families to reduce self-harm and suicide.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Families can play a significant role in supporting offenders; positive family relationships have been identified as a protective factor in desistance from crime. For this reason, we are promoting strong family ties (including significant others) as an important plank of our Prison Reform Programme, alongside education and employment.
The Government published a review by Lord Farmer on 10 August, which made several recommendations to strengthen family or significant other ties to help offenders turn their lives around and protect public safety. We are taking the recommendations forward, including (in October 2017) giving Governors the budget and flexibility to spend their resources appropriately to help prisoners keep important family ties.
One of Lord Farmer’s recommendations related to the introduction of an “auditable and responsive ‘gateway’ communication system for families and significant others”. We are fully committed to ensuring that prisoners can communicate with their loved ones. We recognise that there is no single method of communication that will be suitable for all users. We will shortly be issuing guidance to prisons on publicising how loved ones can share information about prisoners who may be at risk of self-harm or suicide. In addition, we will issue guidance on facilitating early contact with prisoners’ families or their significant others when they arrive at the prison, so that we can involve them in their support and encourage ongoing contact; and on involving families in the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork process for supporting those at risk.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to introduce performance measures on family contact covering every stage of a prisoner's sentence.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Families can play a significant role in supporting an offender; positive family relationships have been identified as helping to reduce reoffending. For this reason, we are promoting strong family or significant other ties as part of prison reform, alongside education and employment. We believe that a prisoner’s family or significant other is the most effective resettlement agency we have – as the prison inspectorate, the probation service and Ofsted all agree.
Lord Farmer’s review (August 2017) contains several recommendations to strengthen family or significant other ties to help offenders turn their lives around.
We are taking forward his recommendations. In October of this year we devolved the budget for family interventions to governors, providing them with the flexibility to spend their resources appropriately to help prisoners keep important family or significant other ties.
The Prison Safety and Reform White Paper committed to implementing a performance measure on family relationships for governors, and this will build upon the observations contained within Lord Farmer’s comprehensive report. Work is currently underway to define the content of this measure.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to release on temporary licence.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We will be exploring in the coming months how best to ensure access to ROTL for those who would benefit, within a robust risk assessment framework. We want to maintain improvements made to ROTL recently while allowing governors greater discretion so that prisoners get the skills and training they need.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the barriers to accessing chaplaincy in prisons.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Prison Service is committed to enabling prisoners to practice their religion, and all prisons have multi faith chaplaincy teams to enable and facilitate this. Instructions and guidance on religious practice in prisons is set out in PSI 5/2016 (Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners).
Formal assurance visits (which include a focus group with prisoners) are made to each prison regularly by a member of the Chaplaincy HQ team to assure the Governor/Director and Head of Chaplaincy of compliance with the PSI. In this way, and through the use of the application system by which prisoners can request to see a Chaplain, any issues or barriers can be identified in a systematic way by local prison management and HQ. The Head of Chaplaincy meets regularly with Faith Advisers for the National Offender Management Service, as well as faith based organisations.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they are working with prison chaplains and faith groups to protect prisoners’ right to practise their faith.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Prison Service is committed to enabling prisoners to practice their religion, and all prisons have multi faith chaplaincy teams to enable and facilitate this. Instructions and guidance on religious practice in prisons is set out in PSI 5/2016 (Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners).
Formal assurance visits (which include a focus group with prisoners) are made to each prison regularly by a member of the Chaplaincy HQ team to assure the Governor/Director and Head of Chaplaincy of compliance with the PSI. In this way, and through the use of the application system by which prisoners can request to see a Chaplain, any issues or barriers can be identified in a systematic way by local prison management and HQ. The Head of Chaplaincy meets regularly with Faith Advisers for the National Offender Management Service, as well as faith based organisations.