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Written Question
Legal Aid Scheme
Monday 9th September 2024

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to (a) review and (b) reform civil legal aid.

Answered by Heidi Alexander - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the civil legal aid sector and are keen to work closely with practitioners and their representative bodies to look at how best we can address this.

We want to understand the different ways in which the justice system can be improved and will be carefully considering our options on the way forward. This includes considering the evidence on civil legal aid gathered over the past year.


Written Question
Bedford Prison: Segregation of Prisoners
Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he expects the new segregation unit at HMP Bedford to be (a) completed and (b) opened.

Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

The design brief for the new care and separation unit at HMP Bedford was to identify a suitable location for a facility which would address HMIP concerns while minimising the impacts on operational capacity, security and regime. The proposal agreed with the Prison was to covert part of B wing into the new unit in place of place the old one.

The care and separation unit is due to be completed in early March 2024, however additional works are required in B wing before the wing can be put back into use. While the programme for this is not yet finalised, the aim is for the new unit to open before the end of the year.


Written Question
Bedford Prison: Segregation of Prisoners
Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been held on the segregation unit at HMP Bedford since 17 November 2023.

Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

As records of prisoners who have left the prison on transfer or on release are no longer accessible to the prison, it is not possible, without incurring disproportionate cost, to say how many individual prisoners were segregated during the period.


Written Question
Bedford Prison: Segregation of Prisoners
Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of plans to replace the segregation unit at HMP Bedford.

Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice

The design brief for the new care and separation unit at HMP Bedford was to identify a suitable location for a facility which would address HMIP concerns while minimising the impacts on operational capacity, security and regime. The proposal agreed with the Prison was to covert part of B wing into the new unit in place of place the old one.

The care and separation unit is due to be completed in early March 2024, however additional works are required in B wing before the wing can be put back into use. While the programme for this is not yet finalised, the aim is for the new unit to open before the end of the year.


Written Question
Family Courts: Training
Tuesday 30th May 2023

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing specialised training to (a) administrative and (b) auxiliary staff in the Family Court service on domestic violence including (i) recognising it, (ii) supporting vulnerable individuals and (iii) how to report concerns.

Answered by Mike Freer

HMCTS staff are trained to support vulnerable individuals by providing practical protections, such as, protective screens, video links, and access to separate waiting rooms and separate entrances in accordance with the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and Part 3A of the Family Procedure Rules. All staff follow safeguarding policies to recognise vulnerable individuals and report concerns. Staff complete annual training on safeguarding, and domestic abuse training is currently being updated in conjunction with HMCTS’ Domestic Abuse Working Group which includes judicial members and representatives from a Women’s Centre.

The Government is delivering on commitments made in response to the final report of the Expert Panel on Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Cases. This includes working with across the family justice system to improve training on domestic abuse and to provide all professionals with the tools to effectively support vulnerable parties.


Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Drugs
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he had made of the potential merits of requiring that health support workers are the first point of contact for prison leavers with substance dependency; and what steps he is taking to provide these leavers with timely access to health services.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

It is vital that all prisoners and prison leavers with a substance dependency can access timely and high-quality treatment to recover from the misuse that drives offending, with dedicated staff in place to ensure continuity of the appropriate support and treatment once someone is released. We work closely with the NHS, Department for Health and Social Care and the Welsh Government to make this possible.

The Ministry of Justice is investing up to £120m over the next three-years to keep drugs out of prisons and get offenders off drugs and into recovery. This includes focusing on prison in-reach by providing prisoners with the opportunity to engage with community treatment pre-release via video calling, and recruiting Health and Justice Coordinators in every probation region to improve links between prison and local treatment services, ensuring continuity of care upon release.


Written Question
Bedford Prison: Wellingborough Prison
Wednesday 24th October 2018

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of closing HMP Bedford and transferring prisoners to HMP Wellingborough when it is operational.

Answered by Rory Stewart

The Government is committed to the modernisation of the prison estate. This will be achieved by delivering up to 10,000 modern, safe and decent prison places as previously announced, and the reconfiguration of the existing estate, providing the physical conditions for Governors to achieve better educational, training and rehabilitative outcomes. The delivery of new places will enable the Prison Estate Transformation Programme to achieve a combination of replacing existing capacity and increasing current capacity so that we will be able to close the least fit for purpose prison accommodation while ensuring we continue to meet demand. Population and capacity of the prison estate is kept under careful review to ensure there is always sufficient capacity. Decisions on the size of the future prison estate will reflect the current and projected prison population, including an assessment of the necessary margin to manage population fluctuations. No decisions have been made about future prison closures (male or female) beyond those which have already been announced.


Written Question
Prisons: Reviews
Monday 22nd October 2018

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 4 of the 17 October 2018 Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board on HMP Bedford, if he will undertake a review of the role of local prisons.

Answered by Rory Stewart

As well as constructing new prisons, the Government’s Prison Estate Transformation Programme is working to reconfigure the existing estate so that prisoners will be held in the right place at the right time in their custodial journey and their rehabilitation can be managed more effectively. This work will see the organisation of the adult male prison estate - including local prisons -simplified into three key functions: reception, training and resettlement. Reception prisons will manage men on remand, fixed recalls and those with a very short time to serve, and they will allocate other individuals for transfer to the next prison. Resettlement prisons will prepare people for release into the community, and they will hold shorter-sentenced men, as well as people transferred from training prisons. To support reconfiguration, we have developed evidence-based Models for Operational Delivery (MODs) for each prison function and also for specialist cohorts. The MODs are best-practice toolkits that will enable governors and commissioners to deliver effective services for their functions and specialist cohorts. The combination of building new prisons and the reconfiguration of the existing estate will address basic issues such as safety and decency, reduce crowding, and drive improvements in rehabilitation. By improving the match between the supply of places and the demands of the population men will be able to progress through the estate to access the right regimes for their needs and prisons will be able to better carry out their function.


Written Question
Bedford Prison: Prisoners' Release
Monday 22nd October 2018

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to accept the recommendation of the Independent Monitoring Board report of 17 October 2018 on HMP Bedford to permit prisoners with a date for release to make an application for universal credit; and if he will discuss that recommendation with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Answered by Rory Stewart

Prisoners are able to meet a DWP Work Coach in their prison in the weeks before release who can help them prepare their claim for Universal Credit. The Work Coach can make an appointment at the relevant Job Centre as early as the day of release and an advance of a full month’s benefit including the housing element, if appropriate can be made within hours.

The MoJ is working closely with DWP to improve the process for access to benefits for prison leavers.


Written Question
Bedford Prison
Monday 22nd October 2018

Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the implications for the Government's policies of the Independent Monitoring Board's report of 17 October 2018 on HMP Bedford.

Answered by Rory Stewart

I am currently considering the content and recommendations of the report from the IMB at HMP Bedford. I will respond to the report as soon as that process is completed, and I will ensure a copy of the response is shared with you.

We have published an action plan to stabilise HMP Bedford following an Urgent Notification by HM Inspectorate of Prisons. The action plan can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/justice-secretary-publishes-plans-to-stabilise-bedford-prison