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Written Question
Blue Badge Scheme: Theft
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he as made of the cost to individuals of replacing blue badges lost due to theft.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department sets the legislation that governs the Blue Badge scheme and provides guidance for local authorities who are solely responsible for administering the scheme.

Current legislation provides local authorities with the means to tackle abuse of the Blue Badge scheme locally, such as the power to retain and cancel badges found to be stolen.

Data on the number of Blue Badges stolen in the last 12 months are not currently available. The latest published statistics show that in the year ending 31st March 2023, 1700 Blue Badges were reported stolen in England. The figures reflect cases that have been recorded in the Blue Badge Digital Service database. It is possible that not all instances of loss or theft will be reported and recorded, and therefore will not be included in these figures.


Written Question
Blue Badge Scheme: Theft
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has had recent discussions with the Home Office on the theft of blue badges.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department sets the legislation that governs the Blue Badge scheme and provides guidance for local authorities who are solely responsible for administering the scheme.

Current legislation provides local authorities with the means to tackle abuse of the Blue Badge scheme locally, such as the power to retain and cancel badges found to be stolen.

Data on the number of Blue Badges stolen in the last 12 months are not currently available. The latest published statistics show that in the year ending 31st March 2023, 1700 Blue Badges were reported stolen in England. The figures reflect cases that have been recorded in the Blue Badge Digital Service database. It is possible that not all instances of loss or theft will be reported and recorded, and therefore will not be included in these figures.


Written Question
Blue Badge Scheme: Theft:
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of blue badge thefts in the last 12 months.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department sets the legislation that governs the Blue Badge scheme and provides guidance for local authorities who are solely responsible for administering the scheme.

Current legislation provides local authorities with the means to tackle abuse of the Blue Badge scheme locally, such as the power to retain and cancel badges found to be stolen.

Data on the number of Blue Badges stolen in the last 12 months are not currently available. The latest published statistics show that in the year ending 31st March 2023, 1700 Blue Badges were reported stolen in England. The figures reflect cases that have been recorded in the Blue Badge Digital Service database. It is possible that not all instances of loss or theft will be reported and recorded, and therefore will not be included in these figures.


Written Question
Prisons: Travellers
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the treatment of (a) Romani, (b) Roma and (c) Irish Traveller people in the prison estate.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) pursues an evidence-based approach to improving treatment and outcomes for prisoners, people on probation and children in our care from Romani, Roma, and Traveller Communities.

The HMPPS Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Strategy, first produced in May 2023, was drawn up, and continues to be developed, in consultation with Third Sector partners. It is informed by a range of internal and external reports and data. The strategy is implemented via a comprehensive action plan, which targets key areas for development, including data improvement, family interactions and health inequalities.

Some specific examples of activity include the further expansion of Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) Forums in prisons. Forums are being regularly held in several establishments across the prison estate, providing a supportive platform for communications and helping to respond to local needs. Staff awareness continues to be improved, with Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller specific information embedded into various guides across the organisation, improving the capability of staff to respond to individuals’ needs.


Written Question
Probation: Resignations
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of new probation officers left the service within a year of joining in each year since 2014.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

A considerable majority of Probation Officers first join the Probation Service as Trainee Probation Officers. During their time as a trainee, they will spend around 15-21 months training before potentially taking up a post as a Band 4 Probation Officer. As a result of this trainee pipeline, there will only be new Probation Officers with less than one year in the Probation Service if they joined the service as a qualified Probation Officer and then left within 12 months.

Retention of Probation staff is a priority for the service. A national standardised approach to exit interviews has been implemented to better understand the key drivers of attrition and feedback from these interviews helps shape and determine retention interventions at a local and national level.

The Probation Service is in its second year of a multi-year pay deal for staff. Salary values of all pay bands will increase each year, targeted at key operational grades to improve a challenging recruitment and retention position. The pay increases differ for each job role, but to provide an example Probation Officers will see their starting salary rise from £30,208 in 2021/22 to £35,130 by 2024/25.

The table below shows only those Probation Officers who joined the service as qualified Probation Officers and so will not include any Probation Officers who joined as trainees (who will all have been in the service for longer than a year by the time they qualify as a Probation Officer). The Probation Service unified in June 2021, bringing together the National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies. As a result, figures pre- and post-June 2021 are not comparable because of the change in the workforce makeup.

Table 1 - Number of Band 4 Probation Officer joiners to HMPPS and those who left HMPPS within 1 year: 2022-2023

Year

All joiners

Staff who left within 1 year

2022

42

3

2023

44

5


Written Question
Prison Accommodation
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the (a) locations and (b) number of places per location of all planned prison places.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

To date, we have delivered c.5,900 places. This includes our two new prisons HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way. By the end of 2025, we are on track to have delivered around 10,000 places in total. This will include our third new prison, HMP Millsike, delivering c.1,500 places, new houseblocks at HMPs Stocken and Rye Hill, as well as hundreds more Rapid Deployment Cells.

Under current plans, we are scheduled to deliver at the following sites from 21 March 2024:

Programme

Site

Places

New Prisons

HMP Millsike

1,468

Garth Wymott 2*

1,715

Gartree 2

1,715

Grendon 2

1,468

HMP Gartree Houseblock **

247

HMP Fosse Way Houseblock

245

Private prisons – houseblock

HMP Rye Hill

458

HMP Parc**

320

Houseblocks

HMP Bullingdon

247

HMP Channings Wood

494

HMP Elmley

247

HMP Hindley

494

HMP Highpoint

741

HMP Wayland

121

HMP Guys Marsh

180

HMP Stocken

214

Refurbishments

HMP Birmingham

301

HMP Norwich

171

HMP Liverpool

350***

Rapid Deployment Cells

HMP Erlestoke

40

HMP Foston Hall

40

HMP The Verne

40

HMP Northumberland

60

HMP Springhill

40

HMP Kirklevington Grange

153

HMP Prescoed

80

Category D

HMP Hatfield

60

HMP Leyhill **

240

HMP Springhill **

180

HMP Sudbury

120

HMP Ford **

420

HMP Standford Hill **

240

Small Secure Houseblocks

HMP Brinsford

120

HMP Humber

120

HMP Lancaster Farms

240

HMP Morton Hall

60

HMP Northumberland

240

HMP Onley

180

HMP Ranby

120

HMP Erlestoke

180

  • * This site is subject to an ongoing planning appeal.

  • ** Delivery at these sites is subject to planning permission.

  • *** A wing-by-wing refurbishment is ongoing, with some places already delivered.

  • Any additional sites not listed here are commercially sensitive and information released about these would prejudice the department’s negotiating position and ability to achieve value for money in these developments.


Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Drugs
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps HM Prison and Probation Service take to ensure prisoners released on end of custody supervised licence can continue to access drug addiction treatment programs when they are released from prison.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We know that supporting offenders to engage in drug and alcohol treatment is vital to reduce reoffending and we are working with health partners on a range of interventions to strengthen continuity of care for prison leavers. We have recruited over 50 Health and Justice Co-ordinators nationwide to improve links between prison and community treatment services, procured 650 laptops to enable prisoners to speak to community treatment providers before release and we are rolling out the Probation Notification Actioning Project (PNAP) which will make probation aware of prison leavers who have been referred to community treatment so probation can support continued engagement.

The lower-level offenders released on ECSL will have a release plan put together by probation, and where appropriate this release plan will include access to drug and alcohol treatment. It remains at the discretion of the prison service to block or delay the ECSL release of any prisoners where doing so would result in losing access to essential services such as drug and alcohol treatment.


Written Question
Prison Officers
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which prisons have used prison officers on detached duty in 2023; and how many (a) officers were deployed to each prison and (b) times those officers were deployed.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

During 2023, 21 prisons received Band 3 officers on National Detached Duty. The table attached shows the average number of detached duty staff deployed at each site in each month.

It is not possible, without incurring disproportionate cost, to provide the remaining information requested, as this would require a detailed examination of individual records.

We are doing more than ever to attract and retain the best staff, including boosting salaries and launching our first-ever nationwide advertising campaign. These efforts are working - we have over 4,800 FTE additional officers between March 2017 and December 2023, and retention rates for prison staff are improving.

We have committed to recruiting up to 5,000 additional prison officers across public and private prisons by the mid-2020s.


Written Question
Prison Accommodation
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners were sharing a one-person cell with another person on (a) 1 March 2021, (b) 1 March 2022 and (c) 1 March 2023.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Crowding levels are published annually in the HMPPS Prison Digest. Figures for the last three years for the number of prisoners sharing a one-person cell with another person for that year can be found in the documents here:


https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpps-annual-digest-april-2020-to-march-2021.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpps-annual-digest-april-2021-to-march-2022.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpps-annual-digest-april-2022-to-march-2023.

The accompanying annex to the latest publication, titled ‘Chapter 2 Tables – Prison Crowding’ provides the percentage of prisoners sharing a one-person cell with another person for each year since 1996.

The determination of the maximum crowded capacity of a particular establishment is a matter of operational judgement, considering risks to safety and stability.

By the end of this SR period, we will have invested nearly £4 billion towards the delivery of 20,000 modern and uncrowded prison places, the biggest prison build programme since the Victorian era, ensuring the right conditions are in place to rehabilitate prisoners, helping to cut crime, and protect the public. We have delivered c.5,900 of these and by the end of 2025, we will have delivered over 10,000 in total.

These places are being delivered through the construction of six new prisons, as well as the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate and temporary accommodation.  We are also continuing to invest in prison maintenance so that existing places remain in use and are safe.


Written Question
Prison Accommodation
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an estimate of the number of proposed new prison places that will be rapid deployment cells.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are delivering 20,000 prison places, the largest prison build programme since the Victorian era. As part of this, and alongside further opportunities to optimise capacity in the estate, the estimated number of proposed new prison places that will be Rapid Deployment Cells is c.1,800. Delivery of the first c.1000 began last year, with c.630 already delivered across 12 sites.