Oral Answers to Questions

Sam Gyimah Excerpts

Tuesday 7th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

11. Which organisations she consulted on the prison service pay award announced by her Department on 19 February 2017.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

We have announced that, in prisons where recruitment and retention are most difficult, we will offer a combination of higher starting pay and an additional allowance of up to £5,000 a year, taking the salary of officers in those jails to up to £30,000. The relevant trade unions were advised in advance.

[Mr Cunningham]

Good management suggests that we lift up the lower paid in the Prison Service, which will help with recruitment and, more importantly, lift morale.

[Mr Gyimah]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. We want to make sure that our hard-working prison officers are well rewarded. Our announcement on 19 February, to which he refers, was specifically designed to tackle jails where it is very hard to recruit because of the high cost of living in their particular market. This year’s pay award for all prison staff is a matter for the independent pay review body, to which we will submit evidence shortly.

[Mr Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)]

12. How many people are serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection which have lasted for more than twice the length of their original sentence.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

As at 31 December 2016, there were 2,006 unreleased prisoners serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection who had served more than twice their original tariff.

[Mr Chope]

I thank my hon. Friend for that depressing statistic. My constituent has served not twice but five times the length of his original sentence. Having been sentenced to two and a half years for actual bodily harm, he has been in prison for 12 and a half years. When is he going to be released?

[Mr Gyimah]

The hon. Gentleman is obviously aware that the IPP tariff was introduced by the last Labour Government, and abolished by the Conservative Administration in 2012. Our efforts are now focused on giving IPP prisoners the support, opportunities and motivation to progress more quickly so that, when they are reviewed by the parole board, they have the best possible prospect of securing release. We are tackling delays in the system and have identified what more needs to be done. A specific unit is looking at individual cases in order to progress them as quickly as possible.

[Huw Merriman (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

13. What steps the Government are taking to ensure that prisoners work and earn while they serve their sentences.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op)]

14. What steps she is taking to review the capability of (a) HM Prison Service and (b) contracted-out prisons to respond to incidents of concerted indiscipline.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

All prisons, both private and public, face the same challenges to safety and security. We are continually reviewing and supporting prisons across the estate to mitigate and manage serious threats and incidents.

[Mr Shuker]

On how many occasions in the past year have private prisons required the support of the public Prison Service to deal with prison indiscipline?

[Mr Gyimah]

Mutual assistance across both sectors is in place in the event of an incident to provide immediate support to those prisons in need. Private sector prisons can therefore provide support to public sector prisons—and vice versa—in the event of a serious threat or incident.

[Amanda Solloway (Derby North) (Con)]

17. What steps the Government are taking to make prisons safer and more secure.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

We are taking urgent action to improve prison safety and security, alongside reforms to overhaul the system to focus on the rehabilitation of offenders. This includes tackling the supply and demand of drugs, drones and phones, which drive prison violence and undermine safety, and redoubling our efforts to address the record levels of suicide and self-harm.

[Amanda Solloway]

I am the rapporteur to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which is conducting an inquiry into mental health and deaths in prisons. Last week, we took evidence from four serving prisoners, including on the issue of safety. One young man told us that he had received only two days’ advance notice of when he was due to be released, causing him great anxiety about accommodation and having a sufficient support network. Will the Minister undertake to look at the resettlement problem?

[Mr Gyimah]

I would be surprised if the gentleman my hon. Friend mentions was informed of his release only two days in advance, but I would of course be happy to look into the situation in more detail.

[Rob Marris (Wolverhampton South West) (Lab)]

When the Minister replied to the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Luton South (Mr Shuker) about safety in prisons, he forgot to supply my hon. Friend with the number. What is the number?

[Mr Gyimah]

The answer is very straightforward: mutual assistance exists for prisons to support each other in both the private and public sectors.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Staff morale is very important to safety and security in prisons, so I wish to ask the Minister again about the flexibilities that I understand governors will have on pay increases from 1 April. Will that mean that we could end up with prison officers in Hull being paid less than prison officers down the road in Leeds? How will that affect morale?

[Mr Gyimah]

No. As I said in my answer to a previous question, the matter of Prison Service pay will be decided nationally. The independent pay review body will also submit evidence throughout this year. That will still be the case where we have governor freedoms, but, in giving governors their budgets, they will be able to decide on the mix of staff and how to deploy them.

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Ind)]

19. What proportion of legal aid is allocated to cases of foreign nationals convicted in the UK who are appealing against deportation.

--- Later in debate ---

[James Berry (Kingston and Surbiton) (Con)]

T4. Mobile phones in prisons allow criminals to deal drugs, intimidate their victims and continue criminality from within their prison cell. Will my hon. Friend say how the powers in the Prisons and Courts Bill will help to address the scourge of mobile phones in prisons once and for all?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

The measures in the Prisons and Courts Bill will allow the Secretary of State to authorise mobile network operators to block illicit mobile phone signals across entire prison sites. That will allow industry experts to work more creatively and effectively to block signals, which means that we will not require a court order to stop the illicit and harmful use of mobile phones in prison.

[Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (UKIP)]

T3. Obviously, we do not want to follow the United States in politicising the judiciary. However, to ensure some degree of public accountability when appointing Supreme Court judges, might the Minister consider allowing the Chair of the Justice Committee to sit on the relevant appointment panel?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mims Davies (Eastleigh) (Con)]

T5. Some of my constituents who work in Winchester prison have highlighted directly with me the challenges that they have at work, locally and nationally. As the Lord Chancellor is keenly aware, there are rising challenges around extremism in prisons. Will she update the House on the progress of the new directorate for security, order and counter-terrorism?

[Mr Gyimah]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: extremism is a worry in our prisons. That is why we set up the new security and counter terrorism unit in the Ministry of Justice. That unit is progressing with implementing the recommendations of the Acheson review that the Department adopted last summer.

[Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

T6. The Government sensibly introduced section 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 to allow the police to arrest paedophiles for sending sexual communications to children, rather than waiting until they actually meet. However, the power cannot be used until the commencement order is passed. It is two years since the Act became law. Will the Secretary of State say how much longer the police will have to wait until they can keep our children safe?

--- Later in debate ---

[John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)]

Given the 30% cut in prison officer numbers since 2010, and given the poor retention rates among new recruits, at what point will the number of officers reach the appropriate level?

[Mr Gyimah]

As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said in answer to an earlier question, we are investing £100 million to add 2,500 prison officers, and we have more officers in training than we have ever had before.

[Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)]

The vast majority of successful personal independence payment appeals succeed because of late additional submitted evidence. What discussions has the Minister had with colleagues in the Department of Health to automatically share supportive medical evidence at the beginning of the process?

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con)]

The Ministry has released figures showing that the number of incidents of drugs being found in prison more than quadrupled from 2,500 in 2015 to 10,400-plus in 2016, yet the National Offender Management Service does not keep a central register of cell searches, which is where many of these drugs are found. Will that change?

[Mr Gyimah]

I thank the Chairman of the Select Committee for that question. We will take every action necessary to make sure that we deal with the scourge of drugs in our prisons.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)]

After a constituent of mine residing in HMP Lindholme was seriously assaulted when other inmates had access to keys to their cells while he did not, is it not abundantly clear that the people who are in charge of our prisons are not governors, and certainly not the Secretary of State, but the prisoners?

[Mr Gyimah]

That is certainly not the case. We do recognise, however, that by recruiting more staff and strengthening the frontline we will make it much easier for staff to challenge and support prisoners. That is why we have announced new investment to recruit 2,500 new officers for our jails, and we are also enabling a caseload of one prison officer per six prisoners, so that they can support our prisoners in the efforts to rehabilitate them.

[James Duddridge (Rochford and Southend East) (Con)]

While significant progress is being made on foreign national offenders being returned, what analysis is there of foreign national offenders coming into the system—and, crucially, do we monitor whether there is a net reduction in foreign national offenders on the estate?

[Mr Gyimah]

The number of foreign nationals entering our prisons is monitored by the Ministry of Justice. Our figures indicate that between 30 June 2008—the highest point—and 30 June 2016, there was a 14% decrease in the total foreign national prisoner population. This is good progress, but I acknowledge that there is still a lot more to be done.

[Several hon. Members rose—]