Oral Answers to Questions

Michelle Welsh Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jake Richards]

The hon. Member raises an important point. The Sentencing Bill will hopefully receive Royal Assent next year, and there are certainly operational challenges to ensure that those reforms and changes to sentencing in our prison system work smoothly. One of the major measures in the Bill, which the Conservative party opposes, is to reduce short-term sentences for the reason that the hon. Member set out. I am happy to have a discussion about the prison in his constituency, and ensure that the Department is working with it closely, so that it is ready for the changes that, hopefully, will come into effect next year.

[Michelle Welsh (Sherwood Forest) (Lab)]

13. What steps his Department is taking to improve safety in prisons.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Jake Richards)]

We are enhancing security measures and easing crowding to curb violence and improve safety in prisons, as well as looking at measures to improve meaningful activity to increase welfare. We are investing around £15 million in protective equipment to help keep frontline staff working in prisons safe, including expanding the use of Tasers and providing more protective body armour.

[Michelle Welsh]

Lowdham Grange prison in my constituency is a failing prison, and I have been inundated with correspondence from prisoners, families and staff who on a regular basis inform me about unsafe conditions and a toxic culture of bullying, as well as incidents of violence, drugs and self-harm, many of which are not recorded; and there is no access to healthcare professionals. Since the last inspection in 2023, 10 prisoners have died. The prisoners have also had 32 days of lockdown in the past two years, and the prison has the worst possible rating for safety. Does the Minister agree that it is time for the Government to make a direct intervention in this prison?

[Jake Richards]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that important case, which is very much on the radar of the Ministry of Justice. I will raise the issue personally with the Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending in the other place. I am personally committed to this issue, and I will visit Lowdham Grange in the new year, hopefully with my hon. Friend, to meet the governor and others to discuss those critical issues.