Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons report into HMP Bedford, published in February 2024, what steps she is taking to improve conditions in HMP Bedford.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
HM Prison & Probation Service is committed to delivering sustained improvement in living conditions and performance across the prison estate, to promote a safe and secure environment that facilitates genuine rehabilitation. Since the publication of HM Inspectorate of Prison's latest report on the prison, HMP Bedford has prioritised the improvement of living conditions, by introducing a programme of cleaning, maintenance, pest control and decency checks.
The new Governor, appointed in February, is continuing to monitor performance at the prison to ensure sustained improvement.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure faith and pastoral care guidance for prisoners is being upheld.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government recognises the importance that faith and belief can have in someone’s rehabilitation, and the role it can play in reducing re-offending. That is why we have been clear that we should include this in planning and work across prisons and probation, and with communities, to strengthen support available.
Faith and belief services, together with pastoral care in prison in England and Wales, are delivered by multi-faith Chaplaincy teams in all prisons and young offender institutions in the secure state, in accordance with the requirements of the Prison Act 1952, the Prison Rules 1999, the Young Offender Rules 2000 and Prison Service Instruction 05/2016 Faith and Pastoral Care of Prisoners.
The delivery of these services is monitored through Quality, Assurance and Development visits to prisons, inspections by HM Inspectorate of Prisons, and the annual reports of prison Independent Monitoring Boards.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases relating to the (a) mis-selling and (b) fraudulent advertising of pets took place in small claims courts in each year since 2018.
Answered by Mike Freer
The information requested by the could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. HMCTS does not record the reason for bringing a small claim, this information is contained within the ‘particulars of claim’ and therefore obtaining this information would require a manual review of all small claims files.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
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 Sentencing Council's overarching guideline on domestic abuse.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Shadow Minister and Shadow Minister for London
The Sentencing Council’s Overarching Principles: Domestic Abuse guideline, which came into force in May 2018, identifies the principles relevant to the sentencing of cases involving domestic abuse.
The Sentencing Council is independent of Parliament and Government. It is responsible for the production and revision of sentencing guidelines, which the courts must follow, unless it would be contrary to the interest of justice. The Council regularly monitors and evaluates all definitive guidelines, and its assessment covers their operation and effect. The Council is planning to review this guideline in 2024.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders have been convicted of a serious further offence of murder, by type of index sentence in each year between 2010 and 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The table below sets out the total number of convictions, where an offender subject to probation supervision was charged with a serious further offence (SFO), which resulted subsequently in a conviction for murder, for all cases notified to what is now HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2015.
Index Sentence | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Community Supervision | 33 | 45 | 32 | 27 | 23 | 23 |
Determinate Prison Sentence | 16 | 26 | 19 | 23 | 23 | 17 |
Life Licence | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
IPP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Total | 50 | 73 | 51 | 53 | 48 | 43 |
1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.
2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender.
3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences of murder that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.
4. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.
5. The data for January 2010 to December 2015 has been updated and may differ to any original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.
6. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy on private prisons of the adequacy of covid-19 sick pay policies implemented by G4S in private prisons.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Whilst they may mirror those set by HMPPS in public sector prisons, all staffing matters in privately managed prisons, including sick pay and related policies, are the responsibility of individual contractors. There is no requirement in the contracts to agree such matters with the Ministry of Justice.
Private providers play an important role in the prison estate and we continue to monitor them to ensure they maintain safe, decent and secure prisons.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that judges are adequately trained on how to deal effectively with cases involving sexual assault and rape.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Judicial training is the responsibility of the Lord Chief Justice under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 section 7 2(b) and is exercised by the Judicial College. Since 2002, all judges who hear criminal cases involving serious sexual offences are required to attend specialist training provided by the Judicial College. Listing, which is a judicial function, ensures that cases are allocated to those who are authorised and trained. The Judicial College is also exploring with the senior judiciary what additional training should be made available to judges who may have to hear cases involving allegations of rape and serious sexual assault within family proceedings.