Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the financial allowance for jury service in covering the cost of wages, food and travel.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Jury service is a vital civic duty, and the Government is committed to ensuring jurors feel supported throughout their service. All the support provided to jurors throughout their service is kept under review to ensure it remains appropriate and accessible. Jurors can claim subsistence and travel expenses, as well as a loss of earnings allowance from the court. For those individuals facing particular difficulties in serving the jury summoning process provides for applications for deferral or excusal based upon financial hardship.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of installing wi-fi in female prisons to facilitate access to (a) education, (b) training and (c) prepare for integration into society.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government recognises the distinct needs of women in custody and the critical role education plays in rehabilitation and reducing reoffending. The national education budget has not been reduced.
However, many prisons in the female estate (as well as the male estate) are having to reduce some elements of delivery due to the rising costs of provision.
Education is only one element of rehabilitation, and we continue to invest in skills and employability training for women, for example HMPPS' Future Skills Programme is supporting women in HMP/YOI Low Newton and HMP/YOI New Hall with the skills required to work in customer service roles. We also support women to desist from crime through housing support on release with a minimum of 10% of temporary accommodation beds reserved for women and nine dedicated Strategic Housing Specialists working across the female estate.
The new Prisoner Education Service includes a secure, standardised IT system across all public sector prisons in England, with Wi-Fi now available in education areas enabling improved internet access and data collection. In two women’s prisons, the Launchpad programme is now providing Wi-Fi across the whole site and in-cell laptops. These digital improvements are intended to support learning, wellbeing, and rehabilitation, better preparing women for employment on release.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of reducing educational programmes funding in female prisons on the level of (a) rehabilitation and (b) reoffending.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government recognises the distinct needs of women in custody and the critical role education plays in rehabilitation and reducing reoffending. The national education budget has not been reduced.
However, many prisons in the female estate (as well as the male estate) are having to reduce some elements of delivery due to the rising costs of provision.
Education is only one element of rehabilitation, and we continue to invest in skills and employability training for women, for example HMPPS' Future Skills Programme is supporting women in HMP/YOI Low Newton and HMP/YOI New Hall with the skills required to work in customer service roles. We also support women to desist from crime through housing support on release with a minimum of 10% of temporary accommodation beds reserved for women and nine dedicated Strategic Housing Specialists working across the female estate.
The new Prisoner Education Service includes a secure, standardised IT system across all public sector prisons in England, with Wi-Fi now available in education areas enabling improved internet access and data collection. In two women’s prisons, the Launchpad programme is now providing Wi-Fi across the whole site and in-cell laptops. These digital improvements are intended to support learning, wellbeing, and rehabilitation, better preparing women for employment on release.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure female prisoners receive (a) clothing and (b) personal protective equipment suitable for women.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Women’s clothing in a range of sizes is available across the women’s estate. This provision has been developed with input from women in custody. Relevant staff in each women’s prison have recently completed training on the ordering process, and a cycle of clothing orders and delivery is in operation. Each establishment has a designated staff member responsible for managing this process.
In line with Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 06/2015 National Policy, Organisation and Summary Arrangements for the Management of Health & Safety, Directors, Deputy Directors and Governors must ensure that work equipment, including personal protective equipment (PPE), provided for use in the workplace is suitable for its intended purpose. Where work undertaken by prisoners has been risk assessed as requiring PPE, appropriate and suitable equipment is provided.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the Rape Review Action Plan to include all cases of sexual violence.
Answered by Laura Farris
The 2021 Rape Review Action Plan set public ambitions to return the volumes of adult rape cases being referred by the police, charged by the CPS, and going to court back to at least 2016 levels. We have exceeded each of these ambitions ahead of schedule.
The Rape Review intentionally focussed its efforts on the system’s response to adult rape, acknowledging its unique and complex nature to investigate and prosecute, as well as for the harm it causes to victims. That being said, improvements delivered through the Action Plan will also have wider benefit for the justice system’s response to other sexual offences.
For example, we have recruited 20,000 extra police officers and are providing specialist rape and serious sexual assault training to 2,000 officers, making sure the police have the skills to investigate these crimes. We have rolled out pre-recorded cross examination for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences nationally, sparing victims from the glare of court and helping them give their best evidence. We are also quadrupling victims funding by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10, enabling us to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisors to around 1,000 by 2024/25.
More widely, the Government’s 2021 Tackling Violence against Women and Girls strategy set out our plan for improving the system wide response to VAWG. We have delivered on the vast majority of the actions set out in the original Strategy and continue to make important strides, including the first successful prosecution for cyber flashing resulting in a custodial sentence (March 2024); bringing into force the provisions in the Online Safety Act (January 2024) including new intimate image abuse offences; and putting a new duty on employers to protect their employees from sexual harassment via the Worker Protection amendment of the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the support that is available to jurors who have been adversely affected by sitting on a jury.
Answered by Mike Freer
Juries are a vital part of our criminal justice system, and jury service is an important civic duty. We want to do everything we can to help jurors feel supported as they undertake this important role.
If any aspect of jury service has left a juror feeling distressed, they are encouraged to speak to their GP and/or the Samaritans. Their GP can help them to access counselling services and the Samaritans can provide support over the telephone, email or through a local Samaritan branch. A leaflet entitled ‘Supporting You Through Jury Service’ which offers further advice to jurors is available in courts.
Our courts request regular feedback from jurors through Juror Experience Surveys to better understand jurors’ needs which finds most jurors enjoy completing jury service. We are using this research alongside the extensive academic research available and experience from other jurisdictions to inform our approach. We are aware that a small minority of jurors suffer adverse effects and are working to understand their specific needs to ensure that the support we offer is appropriate.
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Glastonbury and Somerton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) witnesses and (b) complainants in domestic violence cases involving (i) lengthy court proceedings and (ii) pressure from the defendant to change or withdraw their statement.
Answered by Laura Farris
The Government recognises the vital role that support services play in helping victims of domestic abuse during their engagement with the criminal justice system. This is why we are using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) to over 1000 by 2024/2025 – a 43% increase on the number of advisors over this spending review period.
The magistrates’ court hears over 90% of criminal cases and we continue to hear over 100,000 cases every month. Cases continue to move swiftly through the magistrates’ court with cases heard taking 31 days on average from charge to case completion.
However, we recognise that some court proceedings may be lengthy, and that this can be difficult for victims and witnesses. The Witness Service is available to witnesses in all criminal courts in England and Wales and this service provides practical and emotional support to witnesses of crimes throughout court proceedings.
The intimidation of a witness with the intention of obstructing, perverting or interfering with the course of justice is a criminal offence. Police and prosecutors are also encouraged to develop robust evidence-led case strategies from the start, so that where victims are absent because they are unable or do not want to support a prosecution, the case can still proceed.