Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisons reported a rat infestation in (a) 2022-2023 and (b) 2021-2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There is no central record held showing the number of prisons reporting rat infestations across the prison estate. Routine planned pest control regimes exist, facilitated by the Facilities Management providers in alignment with contractual specifications. In addition to this, reactive pest control visits are undertaken as required.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve commissioned support services for child victims of crime.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Victims Funding Strategy sets out a framework to improve the alignment and coordination of the Government’s commissioning of victim support services to enable all victims to receive the support they need. The strategy introduced national commissioning standards, which will encourage an expected level of service for victims. It also introduced core metrics and outcomes to be collected on all government funding, to ensure we are building a comprehensive evidence base that will allow us to generate a much clearer picture of the needs and experiences of victims using support.
The strategy will be overseen by a cross-government board, which will bring together government departments and key stakeholders in this space to monitor implementation. As part of the strategy, we also committed to reviewing and refreshing existing UK government commissioning guidance for commissioners of local support services. Part of this will include looking specifically at the commissioning of services for children and young people as victims of crime.
The Victims and Prisoners Bill aims to improve the support offered to children and young people. Child victims are covered by the definition of a victim in the Bill, as they are in the current Victims Code.
To drive forward better strategic multiagency collaboration on commissioning for victim support services, the Bill will place a duty on Police and Crime Commissioners, local authorities, and Intergrated Care Boards to collaborate on support services for child and adult victims of sexual abuse, domestic abuse, and other serious violent crime.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a duty on (a) Police and Crime Commissioners and (b) other relevant authorities to commission specific support for child victims of domestic and sexual abuse.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognises that funding for victim support provision is crucial for victims to build resilience and move forward with daily life. This is very important for victims of domestic abuse and sexual abuse as these are particularly traumatic crimes with a high number of victims each year.
To better support victims and meet demand we are more than quadrupling funding for victim services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10. This includes an additional £6.6 million on a multi-year basis throughout this Spending Review, for services supporting victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse, including children.
The Victims and Prisoners Bill is a key opportunity to strengthen, through legislation, funding structures to make the best use of resources. Support for victims of domestic abuse and sexual abuse are commissioned by a range of bodies in a variety of settings. To improve existing service provision the duty to collaborate requires Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), and local authorities to collaborate on services for domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and other serious violent crime. It will drive forward more effective and targeted strategic multi-agency collaboration.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people previously convicted for exposure were later convicted for a violent sexual crime in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Numbers of people were convicted of repeat offences of exposure in each year since 2015, broken down by sentence type, are available in the attached table.
Information on numbers of people previously convicted of exposure who were later convicted of a violent sexual crime in each year since 2015 is not available centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were convicted of repeat offences for exposure in each year since 2015, broken down by sentence type.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Numbers of people were convicted of repeat offences of exposure in each year since 2015, broken down by sentence type, are available in the attached table.
Information on numbers of people previously convicted of exposure who were later convicted of a violent sexual crime in each year since 2015 is not available centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including (a) the South West or (b) the Avon and Somerset authority in the specialist rape courts pilot.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
On 16 June 2022, we announced the Specialist Sexual Violence Support in the Crown Court project at three locations: Leeds, Newcastle, and Snaresbrook in London.
This project is ongoing and we are still in the process of implementing measures, such as trauma informed training for staff, to improve victim experience at the court stage. We will continue to monitor progress against the two aims before making decisions on further rollout, whilst continuing to work closely with the police, Crown Prosecution Service and judiciary so that learnings from the project contribute to ongoing national Crown Court recovery efforts, and bring swifter justice for rape victims.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce delays in the Office of the Public Guardian.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
A backlog of applications to register lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) built up during the pandemic. As restrictions eased, there was a subsequent significant increase in the numbers of applications being received.
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is working hard to tackle the backlog. Frontline operational staff have worked in the office throughout the pandemic and continue to do so, with the OPG’s Birmingham office operating at maximum capacity. Staff are working day and evening shifts to maximise the use of office space. Managers are also encouraging staff to work overtime through the week and at weekends to increase the volume of LPAs registered.
Staff are being recruited on a rolling basis and the use of agency staff is being extended.
We want to make it easier for the public to apply for LPAs, which is why we have announced plans to digitise the service, making it simpler and quicker to use.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many rape crisis centres there are in England and Wales; and whether the Government plans to increase that number to 150, as recommended in the Istanbul Convention.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Rape and sexual violence are devastating crimes that can have life-long impacts on victims and survivors. This Government is committed to ensuring that every victim of rape and sexual assault will have access to quality support, appropriate to their needs, when they need it. This includes a commitment to increase funding for victim support services to £185 million by 2024/25 - more than quadruple the level in 2009/10.
Rape crisis and sexual abuse support centres are independent from the government. Their details are registered with the Charity Commission and Companies House. This government provides core funding across England and Wales via the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund to over 75 rape and sexual abuse support services which are run by these independent organisations.
The Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (England and Wales) has been extended for a further year until March 2023 to ensure support services have the funding stability they need. This allows for recommissioning for the next two years (2023/24 and 2024/25). The recommissioning process will take into consideration a wide range of factors to inform future funding decisions.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) charges, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions there were for indecent exposure, broken down by gender, in the years (i) 2015, (ii) 2016, (iii) 2017, (iv) 2018, (v) 2019, (vi) 2020 and (vii) 2021.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions, convictions up to December 2020, available in the following tool pivot tool:
Within the pivot tables, filter for:
(Offence code: Detailed offence)
Indecent exposure
88B Other miscellaneous sexual offences (Offence)
175 Sexual Offences- Miscellaneous (Offence)
To breakdown an offence by sex, filter for the required offence and move the ‘sex’ filter, in the pivot table field list, to the rows area.
Filter ‘year of appearance’ to 2015-20.
Figures for 2021 are due to be published 19th May 2022.
The figures given in the data tool relate to defendants for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When an offender has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed.
Information on charges issued by the police is not held by this department.