Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to protect breastfeeding mothers from being photographed in public.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This behaviour may already be captured by existing offences.
However, we are keenly aware of concerns that have been expressed over the changes in technology, including the misuse of photography, social media, imagery, and the opportunities to abuse and upset others that such developments can bring.
We have therefore asked the Law Commission to review the law in this area to ensure victims are properly protected.
It is important that any changes to the law in such sensitive areas, are thoroughly assessed and fully evidenced.
The review has looked at the question of non-consensual photography in public places, including whether recording and sharing images of breastfeeding should be captured as “intimate” imagery for the purposes of any reformed criminal law.
The Government awaits the Law Commission’s findings with interest and shall consider them carefully.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the the application submitted by Oasis Charitable Trust to run Medway Secure School will be published on the secure schools page of GOV.UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We are unable to publish the Oasis application documents as had been intended as it has not been possible to produce it in an accessible format as required for all documents published on GOV.UK. A copy of the application and related documents in the form it had been intended to be published will be placed in the House library. We have made the document available on request as stated on the page providing guidance on secure schools.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/secure-schools-how-to-apply
The application submitted by Oasis in March 2019 outlined the foundation for their operating concept and proposed principles for the secure school, in line with the criteria set out in the secure schools ‘how to apply’ guide. Since they were approved as the successful applicant for the first secure school in July 2019, Oasis have continued to develop and refine their operating model. All policies submitted by Oasis were accurate for academic year 2018-19.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison Reform Trust’s report, No life, no freedom, no future, published December 2020, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of repealing IPP sentences.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
While the Government has no plans to repeal IPP sentences, it keeps the operation of those sentences under review. The focus is on ensuring, via a joint HMPPS/Parole Board action plan, that IPP prisoners have every opportunity to progress towards safe release.
This approach is working, with high numbers of unreleased IPP prisoners achieving a release decision each year. All IPP prisoners will have their continued detention reviewed by the independent Parole Board at least once every two years.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to recommendation 8 of the 2019 Farmer Review for Women, what progress has been made on making written Pre-Sentence Reports mandatory for all women and male primary carers before a custodial sentence is passed.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government has made good progress in implementing the recommendations of the Farmer Review for Women, since its publication in June 2019. Ten recommendations have already been implemented and a further eight are expected to be completed this year. Achievements so far include increased access to telephone contact in court custody suites, allowances for the increased use of Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL), amending the eligibility for Child Resettlement Leave to include primary carers as well as sole carers, and the rollout of video calling across the Women’s Estate.
As set out in the Female Offender Strategy, the Government is working to ensure women’s personal circumstances are identified and shared by all agencies in the criminal justice system, in order to inform decisions and support. Lord Farmer’s recommendation on the Personal Circumstances File forms part of this work.
We are also committed to increasing the delivery of quality and timely pre-sentence reports (PSRs) and understand the particular importance of PSRs for women. HM Prison and Probation Service has developed a Pre-Sentence Report interview checklist which focuses on the specific needs of female offenders. Following a series of briefing events, this was rolled out nationally in August 2019 and is available to all practitioners.
Additionally, in the Sentencing White Paper we committed to ensuring that probation staff are supported to deliver a high standard of reports and to significantly increase the proportion of court disposals which benefit from a PSR. This pilot has now launched, and will be in all 15 pilot magistrate courts across 10 probation regions in England and Wales by mid-May. One element of this pilot looks specifically at female offenders, given this cohort often have particularly complex needs. We will use the findings from this pilot to further inform how we take forward Lord Farmer’s recommendation.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the 2019 Farmer Review for Women, what progress has been made on the introduction of a Personal Circumstances File for women in contact with the criminal justice system.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government has made good progress in implementing the recommendations of the Farmer Review for Women, since its publication in June 2019. Ten recommendations have already been implemented and a further eight are expected to be completed this year. Achievements so far include increased access to telephone contact in court custody suites, allowances for the increased use of Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL), amending the eligibility for Child Resettlement Leave to include primary carers as well as sole carers, and the rollout of video calling across the Women’s Estate.
As set out in the Female Offender Strategy, the Government is working to ensure women’s personal circumstances are identified and shared by all agencies in the criminal justice system, in order to inform decisions and support. Lord Farmer’s recommendation on the Personal Circumstances File forms part of this work.
We are also committed to increasing the delivery of quality and timely pre-sentence reports (PSRs) and understand the particular importance of PSRs for women. HM Prison and Probation Service has developed a Pre-Sentence Report interview checklist which focuses on the specific needs of female offenders. Following a series of briefing events, this was rolled out nationally in August 2019 and is available to all practitioners.
Additionally, in the Sentencing White Paper we committed to ensuring that probation staff are supported to deliver a high standard of reports and to significantly increase the proportion of court disposals which benefit from a PSR. This pilot has now launched, and will be in all 15 pilot magistrate courts across 10 probation regions in England and Wales by mid-May. One element of this pilot looks specifically at female offenders, given this cohort often have particularly complex needs. We will use the findings from this pilot to further inform how we take forward Lord Farmer’s recommendation.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress has been made on implementing the recommendations of the 2019 Farmer Review For Women.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government has made good progress in implementing the recommendations of the Farmer Review for Women, since its publication in June 2019. Ten recommendations have already been implemented and a further eight are expected to be completed this year. Achievements so far include increased access to telephone contact in court custody suites, allowances for the increased use of Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL), amending the eligibility for Child Resettlement Leave to include primary carers as well as sole carers, and the rollout of video calling across the Women’s Estate.
As set out in the Female Offender Strategy, the Government is working to ensure women’s personal circumstances are identified and shared by all agencies in the criminal justice system, in order to inform decisions and support. Lord Farmer’s recommendation on the Personal Circumstances File forms part of this work.
We are also committed to increasing the delivery of quality and timely pre-sentence reports (PSRs) and understand the particular importance of PSRs for women. HM Prison and Probation Service has developed a Pre-Sentence Report interview checklist which focuses on the specific needs of female offenders. Following a series of briefing events, this was rolled out nationally in August 2019 and is available to all practitioners.
Additionally, in the Sentencing White Paper we committed to ensuring that probation staff are supported to deliver a high standard of reports and to significantly increase the proportion of court disposals which benefit from a PSR. This pilot has now launched, and will be in all 15 pilot magistrate courts across 10 probation regions in England and Wales by mid-May. One element of this pilot looks specifically at female offenders, given this cohort often have particularly complex needs. We will use the findings from this pilot to further inform how we take forward Lord Farmer’s recommendation.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how his Department ensures that the office of the Legal Ombudsman does not discriminate against people suffering from mental health issues during the decision making process.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) is an arm’s length body – which administers the Legal Ombudsman scheme (LeO) – and makes decisions in relation to cases considered under the scheme independently of, and without influence from, the Ministry of Justice.
We are aware that LeO staff receive training on reasonable adjustments and have Dedicated Vulnerable Customers Champions to identify customers who may need additional assistance or reasonable adjustments to access its service. This includes adjustments for mental health reasons.
The OLC also has a service complaints process, of which the last stage is escalation to the Service Complaint Adjudicator who is appointed by the Board and independent of the OLC.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the prevalence of use of non-disclosure agreements by legal professionals; and what steps his department is taking to help ensure that non-disclosure agreements are not misused.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The legal profession in England and Wales is independent of Government and legal professionals are regulated by a number of regulators including the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Bar Standards Board (BSB). Legal professionals must comply with a detailed Code of Conduct, which ensures that high standards of conduct are met.
The SRA has issued guidance via a warning notice to all regulated individuals and entities on the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). The SRA warning notice confirms that they consider NDAs to be improperly used if they prevent a person from reporting misconduct, making a protected disclosure, reporting an offence or cooperating with criminal activity. The SRA has also been taking enforcement action against solicitors over the misuse of NDAs.
The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy has published its response to views on consultation on confidentiality clauses. This proposes new legislation to further protect consumers in the provision of such legal services and deter rogue practice.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the recommendations of the Law Society's submission to Criminal Legal Aid Review, published in February 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
In order to focus on the most pressing issues for practitioners during the COVID-19 pandemic we agreed to temporarily pause our work on the Criminal Legal Aid Review in order to focus on short term sustainability issues. We will return to the review, which has a wider focus on long term sustainability of the criminal legal aid market as quickly as we can, while doing all we can to mitigate the current crisis and support justice recovery.
On 28 February 2020, as part of the review, we launched a consultation on policy proposals for the “Criminal legal Aid Review - An accelerated package of measures amending the criminal legal aid fee schemes”. This consultation remains open and we continue to engage with various stakeholder and representative bodies and value the contributions being made. Once the consultation closes, the Government will publish its response after carefully considering the issues raised by the Law Society and others who respond to the consultation.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to rehabilitate prisoners convicted of terrorism offences; and which (a) organisations and (b) individuals provide rehabilitation programmes to prisoners convicted of terrorism offences.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) use tailored interventions with offenders - psychological, ideological and theological - to support their disengagement and rehabilitation.
We continue to regularly review Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) intervention programmes to ensure they are informed by the most up to date research on correctional rehabilitation. Interventions are delivered by in-house HMPPS CT specialists or through a range of external providers. We are unable to disclose further information regarding external providers as we are concerned about the adverse impact disclosure will have on national security.
More widely, we have trained over 29,000 prison staff to recognise, report and challenge extremist behaviour in prison. HMPPS works closely with partners, including with law enforcement, to understand and manage the risks that terrorist offenders present in prison, using a range of control and rehabilitation measures. This is underpinned by a specialist counter terrorism case management process, which is led by HMPPS Counter Terrorism specialists.