Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what legislation he plans to bring forward to give effect to the statement that the progression model will come into force on 1 October 2026; whether that legislation will amend or revoke the Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2026; and on what date he intends to lay it.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will now deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model, which will help ensure there are always enough places for the courts to be able to send people to custody in order to keep the public safe.

The Government carefully considered concerns raised by victims, survivors, parliamentarians and the wider public and acted on those concerns. As a result, offenders convicted of unlawful killing offence such as manslaughter, causing death by dangerous driving, as well as further historic child sex offences, will now be excluded, on top of rape and serious child sex offences. This also includes offenders convicted of offences involving the killing of an emergency worker. A full list of exclusions can be found here: Sentencing Act 2026 offence exclusions - GOV.UK.

These exclusions are in addition to the existing exclusion of more than 18,000 offenders serving more serious sentences.

The progression model amends release points for offenders serving Standard Determinate Sentences.

The date from which the progression model will apply, and the date of the first tranche of releases is 1 October 2026. Offenders released under the progression model will be controlled under strict licence conditions and can be recalled to custody where they breach those conditions or their risk can no longer be safely managed in the community.

The Government has made a commencement regulation to revoke the previous order’s commencement date for the Progression Model. Full details are set out in ‘The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 6 and Revocation) Regulations 2026’ which is available at Legislation.gov.uk.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to change the content or timing of the ten tranches of prisoners to be released.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will now deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model, which will help ensure there are always enough places for the courts to be able to send people to custody in order to keep the public safe.

The Government carefully considered concerns raised by victims, survivors, parliamentarians and the wider public and acted on those concerns. As a result, offenders convicted of unlawful killing offence such as manslaughter, causing death by dangerous driving, as well as further historic child sex offences, will now be excluded, on top of rape and serious child sex offences. This also includes offenders convicted of offences involving the killing of an emergency worker. A full list of exclusions can be found here: Sentencing Act 2026 offence exclusions - GOV.UK.

These exclusions are in addition to the existing exclusion of more than 18,000 offenders serving more serious sentences.

The progression model amends release points for offenders serving Standard Determinate Sentences.

The date from which the progression model will apply, and the date of the first tranche of releases is 1 October 2026. Offenders released under the progression model will be controlled under strict licence conditions and can be recalled to custody where they breach those conditions or their risk can no longer be safely managed in the community.

The Government has made a commencement regulation to revoke the previous order’s commencement date for the Progression Model. Full details are set out in ‘The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 6 and Revocation) Regulations 2026’ which is available at Legislation.gov.uk.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has undertaken any modelling on the projected adult prison population for each month from August 2026 to February 2028 under scenarios in which (a) the Sentencing Act 2026 is implemented as enacted, (b) the Act is implemented with the offence exclusions announced on 4 August 2026, and (c) the Act is implemented with the exclusion in toto of the section 23 early-release provisions.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.

Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model, which will help ensure there are always enough prison places for the courts to be able to send people to custody.

The Prime Minister’s review of the progression model carefully considered implications for prison capacity as well as concerns raised by victims, survivors, parliamentarians and the wider public.

To provide transparency, we legislated for a duty to publish an Annual Statement on prison capacity. This will be published later this year.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims will be sent letters advising them their perpetrator will be released from prison early as a result of the Sentencing Act 2026 following the relevant offence exclusions.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Sentencing Act 2026 contains provisions which change the proportion of a standard determinate sentence which must be served in prison before the offender serving such a sentence is released automatically on licence. Eligible victims who have opted into the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, where the offender is serving a standard determinate sentence, have been informed of the commencement of the legislation.

On 30 August, the Prime Minister announced that the Government has set out plans to create more headroom in the prison system, so that we can reduce the number of people released early under these changes. This includes excluding sentences for all forms of manslaughter, death by dangerous driving, causing or allowing the death of a child and indecent assault offences from the progression model, in addition to rape and certain child sexual offences previously announced.

Sentences are now being recalculated, and, at this stage, we cannot provide figures on the number of offenders whose release dates will change and, therefore, the number of victims affected. This will continue to evolve whilst the calculations take place. Once sentence calculations have taken place, Victim Liaison Officers will write to victims, confirming if the offender in their case has a changed release date and giving them the opportunity to make representations about licence conditions.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners converted to a new religion while in prison in the past three years, broken down (a) by the ethnicity of the prisoner, and (b) the religion they were converting to and from.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

To provide the information requested, it would be necessary manually to examine individual prisoner records for the period in question, to ascertain whether any changes to data collected electronically related to instances of conversion, or were made for other reasons, for example to correct a previous error. This could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners held on Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences have been convicted of sexual offences.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice publishes routine data on prisoners serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences in custody, including information on their offence group, in the Offender Management Statistics publication.

The latest figures are available in Table 1.A.17 at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a69e0e116bc92f51e1a4310/prison-population-2026.ods.

Published figures show that, as of 30 June 2026, there were 379 unreleased prisoners serving an IPP sentence in custody whose index offence fell within the offence group of sexual offences.

On 1 September, the Lord Chancellor announced that the Government will bring an end to the sentence for those who continue to serve it and will bring forward legislation to do this by the end of this Parliament.

These are complex cases, involving important public protection and victim considerations. Reform will take time to get right.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Freedom of Information requests to which his Department has not yet provided a substantive answer were received a) 0-19, b) 20, c) 20-39, d) 40, e) 41 or more working days ago.

Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

As of 3 September 2026, there were 771 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that have been received by the Ministry of Justice and had not yet been responded to. The table below notes the volumes of cases that were received per the time period categories requested.

The Ministry of Justice publishes its FOIA performance statistics every quarter, which can be accessed on Gov.UK: Freedom of Information statistics - GOV.UK.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will launch an investigation into forced conversion to Islam in prisons.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government does not tolerate intimidation, gang activity or faith-based coercion of any kind in prisons. Prisoners are free to practise, change or decline a religion or belief and any concerns that a prisoner may be changing their faith or belief under duress or coercion are reported and addressed through established prison security, intelligence and safeguarding procedures.

Any allegations of forced conversion, regardless of the faith or belief concerned, are taken seriously and prisons act swiftly to clamp down on threatening behaviour by any groups or individuals. Anyone who breaks the prison rules – including through extremist threats or violence – will be sanctioned and faces the prospect of more prison time.

There are no plans to launch an investigation into forced conversion in prisons.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Freedom of Information requests his Department has, in the past 12 months, provided a response to within a) 0-19, b) exactly 20, c) 20-39, d) 40, e) 41 or more working days of the request's receipt.

Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

From 3 September 2025 to 3 September 2026, the Ministry of Justice responded to 5,426 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. In 2025, the Ministry of Justice received the second highest volume of FOIA requests for a Government department. The Department publishes its FOIA performance statistics every quarter, which can be accessed on Gov.UK: Freedom of Information statistics - GOV.UK.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, (a) for what reason submissions to the Call for Evidence by the Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia Definition were deleted, (b) whether this was in breach of MHCLG records and information management policy, and (c) if she will provide a list of all organisations which submitted a response to the Call for Evidence.

Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Department manages information in accordance with its legal obligations and established information management policies, including UK GDPR requirements.

Ministers were not involved in operational decisions about the handling or retention of information submitted to the Call for Evidence. The Permanent Secretary will respond to the Honourable Member’s correspondence on the specific matters he has raised.

The Government does not routinely publish details of individual respondents to Calls for Evidence.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to respond to the letters from the hon. Member for West Suffolk of 21 July, 23 July, 4 August and 25 August 2026.

Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Department recognises the importance of responding to correspondence from Honourable and Right Honourable Members in a timely manner. The Hon. Member's letters of 21 July, 23 July, 4 August and 25 August have been received and are being considered. I regret that responses have not yet been provided and apologise for the delay. Responses will be issued as soon as possible.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to adopt the policies in the Cutting Youth Crime, Saving Young Lives white paper.

Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The new Government is committed to the goals and direction set out in the Youth Justice White Paper in May and is making progress on delivering the significant programme of reforms. As this work progresses, we will continue to develop and refine our approach in line with wider Government priorities – in particular, building on work already underway, we are developing plans to strengthen the role of strategic authorities in youth justice, in line with the Rewiring the State Cabinet statement. We will set out further detail in due course.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide the itinerary for the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sentencing, Human Rights and Technology's trip to the USA in July 2026, including the organisations visited and topics discussed.

Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

This trip took place to support the once-in-a-generation reforms we are making to our youth justice system. In Missouri, as part of the delegation, I visited a family court and hosted a roundtable there on legal advocacy for child offenders. I also visited two youth custody detention centres as the ‘Missouri Model’ of youth justice is recognised across the world for its high-performing rehabilitative approach. In Chicago, I hosted another roundtable on childhood criminal record reform and met with the Obama Foundation’s ‘My Brother’s Keepers Alliance’ at the Obama centre.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press release by the Ministry of Justice entitled Millions to be invested in next generation of legal talent, published on 2 September 2026, what steps will chambers be expected to take to increase representation in the profession.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are investing £1.5m to fund up to 100 additional pupillages and widen access to the legal profession. As set out in the guidance available on the Council of the Inns of Court’s website, chambers will be expected to incorporate the following measures in their recruitment process to increase representation in the profession:

Targeted outreach – activity to raise awareness of the pupillage opportunities amongst those from underrepresented groups, including lower socio-economic backgrounds. Examples of suitable targeted outreach activities include attending careers fairs or other events at universities with higher diversity representation; hosting open days/other events for under-represented groups; and mentoring aspiring barristers, including providing practice with applications and interview techniques.

Contextual Recruitment – additionally considering a candidate’s individual circumstances and experiences during the sifting process, such as their socio-economic background, caring responsibilities or experience of care.

The Equal Merit (or tie break) provision – this provision allows chambers to take a protected characteristic into consideration when deciding whom to recruit or promote where people having the protected characteristic are at a disadvantage or are under-represented in chambers. We expect chambers to apply this measure at the final stage of recruitment and only in circumstances where the candidates have been assessed as being as qualified as each other.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of (a) the number of items of prisoner property that were lost in the course of transfers between prisons, and (b) how many prisoners have been affected by this, broken down by month for the past 12 months.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Information about the instances of lost property is not held centrally. It could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been recorded as changing their religion, broken down by prison, in each of the last three years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 4 September to Question 26201.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners his Department expects to be released in the first tranche of early release under the Sentencing Act 2026 progression model by establishment.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Following the Government's review of the Sentencing Act, and the decision to exclude additional offences from the Progression Model, the commencement date was moved to 1 October 2026. As a result, the first tranche will take place on 1 October 2026, with the second tranche following on 13 October 2026 as originally planned.

We have published the modelled estimates of the volumes of offenders to be released on the first day of each tranche. Current published estimates do not identify releases from individual prisons. This information is now available at: Estimated progression model tranche release volumes - GOV.UK.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims were originally contacted advising them that their perpetrator may be released from prison early as a result of the Sentencing Act 2026, but whose perpetrator will now no longer be eligible as a result of the latest offence exclusions.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Sentencing Act 2026 contains provisions which change the proportion of a standard determinate sentence which must be served in prison before the offender serving such a sentence is released automatically on licence. Eligible victims who have opted into the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme, where the offender is serving a standard determinate sentence, have been informed of the commencement of the legislation.

According to information held on the Probation Service Victim Case Management System, as of 9 July 2026, 8,711 letters had been issued to victims engaged with the Victim Contact Scheme to inform them of the legislative changes to prisoner release arrangements under the Sentencing Act 2026. This figure should not be interpreted as the number of offenders affected by the changes. Not all offenders will necessarily receive an earlier release date, not all eligible victims choose to participate in the Victim Contact Scheme, and some offenders have multiple victims linked to their case.

On 30 August 2026, the Prime Minister announced further exclusions from the progression model. In addition to rape and certain child sexual offences previously announced, these exclusions included all forms of manslaughter, causing death by dangerous driving, causing or allowing the death of a child and indecent assault offences.

As a result of these changes, sentence calculations are being reviewed and, where necessary, recalculated. It is therefore not currently possible to provide the number of victims who were initially informed that an offender in their case may be eligible for an earlier release date, but whose offender is no longer eligible as a result of the subsequent exclusions.

Once sentence calculations have been completed, Victim Liaison Officers will contact affected victims to confirm whether the offender's release date has changed and, where appropriate, provide them with an opportunity to make representations regarding licence conditions.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in the last three years, how many assaults on (a) prison officers and (b) prisoners, were committed by prisoners on Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason the Criminal Justice Board has not met since December 2025.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Criminal Justice Board last met in December 2025. Cross-system engagement and oversight has continued through other senior governance arrangements, including the Criminal Justice Action Group (CJAG), which brings together senior leaders from across the criminal justice system to address shared priorities and challenges.

The Lord Chancellor has made clear his intention to reinvigorate the Criminal Justice Board as a forum that takes ownership of reform across the criminal justice system and looks forward to convening it.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the additional cost will be, in (a) money, and (b) staff hours, to the Probation Service as a result of the ten tranches of early released prisoners under the Sentencing Act 2026 progression model.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government assessed the impact of the Sentencing Act 2026 reforms through its published Impact Assessment and is working with probation, policing and local partners to manage implementation. The Impact Assessment can be accessed here: Sentencing Act Impact Assessment.

This Government is committed to ensuring the Probation Service has the capacity it needs to manage offenders safely in the community, including those released on licence from October 2026. We are investing up to £700 million in probation and community services by the final year of the spending review period to support the expansion of tagging, accommodation provision and increasing capacity. We have committed to onboarding at least 1,300 more trainee probation officers in 2026/27. This builds on the success of previous years’ campaigns with 1,057 trainees onboarded in 2024/25, and 1,389 in 2025/26.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences were released and then recalled to prison because they committed violent or sexual offences, in the last three years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

In 2023, there were 195 IPP recalls related to further charges, 170 in 2024 and 97 in 2025. HMPPS does not record details of the alleged offence or the outcome of any subsequent court proceedings. This information is routinely published in the Offender Management Quarterly Statistics in Table_5_A_10: prison-recalls-2025.ods

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convicted shoplifters and what percentage of convicted shoplifters avoided an immediate custodial sentence for shoplifting in the past two years.

Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on convictions and sentencing outcomes for a wide range of offences in the Outcome by Offences Tool, including theft from shops. This can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have changed their names while serving a prison sentence in the past three years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Information about the number of prisoner names changes is not held centrally. It could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimation his Department has made of the total floor area available across those prisons and young offenders' institutions that have been closed since 2010, broken down by individual establishment and divided into a) total area b) indoor area c) cell area.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not held centrally.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to proceed with the proposed restrictions to jury trials in the Courts and Tribunals Bill.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government has confirmed that the Courts and Tribunals Bill will return to the House of Commons in October, when Parliament will have the opportunity to continue its consideration of the Bill.

Measures in the Courts and Tribunals Bill are based on Sir Brian Leveson’s recommendations in his Independent Review of the Criminal Courts and are designed to reduce demand in the Crown Court. The Prime Minister has said he wants to look in detail at the proposals. It is right that the new administration takes the time to consider the measures, review the evidence, and consider the wide range of views on this legislation.