Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when her Department plans to publish its review of the presumption of parental contact in family courts; and whether that review will include consideration of disapplying the presumption in cases where domestic abuse has been evidenced.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Review into the Presumption of Parental Involvement is now complete. The Review and the Government’s response and next steps will be published shortly.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government plans to commission an independent review of training for (a) family court judges, (b) Cafcass officers and (c) expert witnesses on (i) coercive control, (ii) post-separation abuse and (iii) the misuse of legal processes by perpetrators.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government currently has no plans to commission an independent review of training for family court judges, Cafcass officers and expert witnesses.
The judiciary is independent of the Government; under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the Lady Chief Justice has statutory responsibility for the training of the judiciary of England and Wales. This is fulfilled on behalf of the Lady Chief Justice by the Judicial College.
Cafcass is an independent Arm’s Length Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice and is responsible for its own training. Cafcass Family Court Advisers complete mandatory domestic abuse training including on using Cafcass’ Child Impact Assessment Framework which has guidance and tools for assessing when domestic abuse is a feature of the child’s case, including when coercive control is present. Family Court Advisers are also trained to follow Cafcass’ Domestic Abuse Practice Policy which sets out the actions they must undertake when working with children and adults who have experienced domestic abuse
The annex to Practice Direction 25B outlines the standards an expert witness in children proceedings must adhere to. These include that they are appropriately qualified (where relevant), have sufficient experience of the issue on which they are to give evidence and undertake continuous professional development. It is at the courts’ discretion whether to give permission for the instruction of an expert; this decision is based on all of the information available to the court, including whether the expert has undertaken suitable training and qualifications.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the evaluation of the Pathfinder pilot family courts will be published in full prior to any national policy changes based on its findings.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government commissioned formal evaluation of the Pathfinder pilots in North Wales and Dorset in two parts. The first part was a process evaluation and financial analysis which was published in March 2025. The second part examines the experiences of children and families and will be published later this year.
The two evaluation reports are already informing policy and operational changes; and monitoring and evaluation of Pathfinder is ongoing. A feasibility study, to identify options for further impact and economic evaluation of Pathfinder, is underway and will be published later this year.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to bring forward (a) legislative and (b) policy proposals to help support the children of prisoners.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
This Government recognises that having a parent in prison is considered an adverse childhood experience and can have a significant impact on a child’s life chances. We have therefore committed to ensuring that children impacted by parental imprisonment are identified and offered the support they need to address this.
We are working closely with the Department for Education to drive action on this important agenda. Ministers from both the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education recently hosted a roundtable bringing together sector experts. Officials from both Departments have attended focus groups to hear directly from those with lived experience of parental imprisonment, so that their voices can shape and inform the policy proposals we will bring forward.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 47817 on Ministry of Justice: Equality, if she will publish all documentation associated with the training on creating inclusive virtual teams.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Training materials associated with the Ministry of Justice’s course Creating Inclusive Virtual Teams are subject to copyright and confidentiality considerations.
The documentation includes proprietary material provided by third-party training providers under licence and therefore cannot be published in full.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to permit outdoor religious weddings.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Law Commission’s 2022 report on weddings raises a number of issues around weddings law, including giving greater choice in how and where individuals can get married.
Given marriage will always be one of our most important institutions, it is right that we take the time to carefully consider this report before we set out our position on weddings reform in the coming months.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what her Department's budget is for translation into foreign languages in the (a)2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The budget for translation services in the 2024-25 financial year was £2,911,000.
While budgets are not set at the level of individual contracts, the figure represents the planned spend by HM Prison and Probation Service under its translation and transcription contract with an external provider.
We are unable to provide an equivalent figure for 2025-26 as budgets have not yet been set at that level of detail.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2025 to Question 29153 on Ministry of Justice: Equality, which company provided the EDI course; and what the title was of the course.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The “Creating inclusive Virtual Teams” course is procured through the Government Learning Framework provided via KPMG.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2025 to Question 26915 on Crown Court: Trials, when she plans to publish the data for each court since June 2024.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Published data presents a range of measures including open caseload volumes, trial effectiveness rates and timeliness. The maximum amount of possible court time and the actual court time used for each Crown Court as contained in the Answer of 5 February 2025, is not currently (and never has been) published as either part of our official statistics series, or as published management information. It is recorded as part of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) internal Management Information (MI) and used for operational delivery management and planning purposes, as described in my previous answer.
The exercise to quality assure the HMCTS internal MI from July 2024 is expected to be completed by mid Spring 2025.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2025 to Question 26918 on Prisons: Construction, how many existing cells had additional beds installed to increase capacity between (a) May 1997 and May 2010 and (b) May 2010 and July 2024; how many prison places were removed in prisons that closed in the same period; and where those closed prisons were.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Data on the number of cells which had additional beds installed is not held by the Ministry of Justice for the period requested. Prison crowding data is published annually in Annex 2 of the HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2023 to March 2024 - GOV.UK. This publication provides the percentage of prisoners held in crowded accommodation in each year in each prison since 1999. There is no earlier information on crowding available.
Available records indicate that, between May 1997 and May 2010, the total operational capacity of the prison system increased from 61,927 to 89,757, a net increase of 27,830 places. This is a net figure that takes into account all decreases including prison closures, and all increases including new accommodation or crowding of existing accommodation. Data on the number of places removed from prison closures during this period is not held by the Ministry of Justice.
The net change in prison operational capacity between May 2010 and April 2024 was c500 places. The requested information on prison closures between May 2010 and July 2024 has been provided in a table below:
Prison | Number of Prison Places Closed | Year |
Ashwell | -214 | 2011 |
Lancaster Castle | -243 | 2011 |
Brockhill (Part of Hewell) | -170 | 2011 |
Latchmere House | -207 | 2011 |
Wellingborough | -588 | 2012 |
Camp Hill (Part of Isle of Wight) | -595 | 2013 |
Gloucester | -321 | 2013 |
Canterbury | -314 | 2013 |
Shrewsbury | -341 | 2013 |
Bullwood Hall | -228 | 2013 |
Kingston | -205 | 2013 |
Shepton Mallet | -189 | 2013 |
Northallerton | -252 | 2013 |
Reading | -320 | 2013 |
Dorchester | -291 | 2013 |
Blundeston | -526 | 2013 |
Blantyre House | -122 | 2015 |
Haslar | -197 | 2015 |
Dover | -401 | 2015 |
Holloway | -591 | 2016 |
Kennet | -342 | 2016 |
Glen Parva | -638 | 2017 |
Hewell Grange (Part of Hewell) | -224 | 2020 |
Total | -7519 |
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Our recently announced 10-year Prison Capacity Strategy outlines a target of 14,000 new prison places by 2031, supported by £2.3 billion in funding for prison builds over the next two years.