Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which prisons are being (a) built and (b) refurbished as at January 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As of January 2022, the only prison currently being built in England and Wales is Glen Parva (Leicestershire), due to open in spring 2023. Minor post-completion work is being carried out at HMP Five Wells (Wellingborough) which is due to open in early 2022. Each will provide c.1,680 modern prison places. We have started enabling work in preparation for the construction of a new prison next to HMP Full Sutton after receiving full planning permission. It is due to open in 2025.
As of January 2022, a major programme of refurbishment is underway at HMP Liverpool.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of potential prison capacity in (a) five and (b) ten years' time.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As at 7 January 2022, the total operational capacity of prisons in England and Wales was 81,291.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes weekly prison population and capacity information through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-population-statistics-2022
We are committed to building as many prison places as we need. Over the next ten years, additional capacity will come in to use for a range of reasons, including new build prison accommodation, existing accommodation returning to use following the completion of essential maintenance or places coming into use following a change in function. We are investing £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 additional, modern prison places including 2,000 temporary prison places across England and Wales. This includes creating four new prisons over the next six years and expanding another four prisons over the next three years. The first of these, HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire, is due to open in February and work is also well underway at Glen Parva, Leicestershire.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the current capacity of the prison system.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As at 7 January 2022, the total operational capacity of prisons in England and Wales was 81,291.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes weekly prison population and capacity information through the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-population-statistics-2022
We are committed to building as many prison places as we need. Over the next ten years, additional capacity will come in to use for a range of reasons, including new build prison accommodation, existing accommodation returning to use following the completion of essential maintenance or places coming into use following a change in function. We are investing £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 additional, modern prison places including 2,000 temporary prison places across England and Wales. This includes creating four new prisons over the next six years and expanding another four prisons over the next three years. The first of these, HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire, is due to open in February and work is also well underway at Glen Parva, Leicestershire.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a legal pardon for people who have a criminal conviction as a result of not paying for a television licence.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
There are currently no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a legal pardon for people who have a criminal conviction as a result of not paying for a television licence.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the potential cost of imprisoning people aged over 75 who have been prosecuted for not holding a valid TV license.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
No estimate was made of the potential cost of imprisoning people aged over 75 for not holding a valid TV licence by the Ministry of Justice. The lead department on TV licencing is the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DDCMS). The BBC is responsible for the over 75s TV licence fee concession. A person cannot receive a custodial sentence for TV licence evasion but can be committed to prison for wilfully refusing to pay the fine. Imprisonment is only pursued as a matter of last resort.
The Ministry of Justice reviewed prosecution data between 1992 and 1999 for TV licence fee evasion, prior to the introduction of the concession, and established that there were no prosecutions of defendants over the age of 75 during this period.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will increase sentences for people who are convicted of abusing Government support schemes during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring a robust response to those who exploit the covid-19 outbreak through criminal means. Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for our independent courts.
The Government continues to work alongside the CPS to provide a multi-agency response to criminality associated with covid-19. A joint interim charging protocol has been agreed between the police and CPS which gives the highest priority to custody cases and all covid-19 related cases.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times unconditional bail has been granted in the last three years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
It is not possible to identify from centrally held data the number of times unconditional court bail has been granted in the last three years as the data does not identify whether or not conditions were attached to bail.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of divorces which have been refused in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
A decree nisi is the provisional decree of divorce pronounced when the court is satisfied that a person has met the legal and procedural requirements to obtain a divorce. The number and proportion of divorce petitions in which the court declined to grant a decree nisi in each of the last five years are as follows:
Year | Divorce petitions issued | Decree nisi not granted | Proportion of all petitions |
2013 | 97,044 | 20,462 | 17% |
2014 | 94,842 | 17,759 | 16% |
2015 | 97,782 | 16,789 | 15% |
2016 | 98,335 | 15,791 | 14% |
2017 | 93,934 | 15,414 | 14% |
The court may decline to grant a decree nisi because there is insufficient evidence that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. Further evidence may then be submitted to the court and the court may decide to grant the decree. Information on how many rejected decrees nisi are granted subsequently could only be obtained from an analysis of court files at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many ghost brokers have been prosecuted in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
It is not possible to identify prosecutions involving ghost broking within the information held centrally by the Ministry of Justice. These offences are likely to be classified as fraud by false representation.
This detailed information may be held on the court record but to be able to identify these offenders we would have to access individual court records which would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party - South Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were serving prison sentences in each of the last five years; and what the average cost to the public purse per prisoner was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service routinely publishes average costs per prisoner, costs per prison place and overall prison unit costs for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales. Additionally, the prison population numbers are included within the published data. This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year.
Information on prison population and expenditure for previous financial years can be accessed in the Prison and Probation Performance Statistics pages for each financial year on the www.gov.uk website. Prison unit costs can be found within the Excel document Costs per prison place and cost per prisoner by individual prison establishment in the ‘Cost by Establishment’ tab.
The most recent published figures for financial year 2016-17 can be accessed on the www.gov.uk website from the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-statistics-2016-to-2017
Within the costs per prison place and cost per prisoner 2016 to 2017 summary file, the figures for financial year 2015-16 have been restated to enable a more accurate comparison between the two years.