Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to introduce statutory purposes for prisons.

We remain committed to continuing to reform our prison framework to make prisons places of safety and reform. Although neither measure was included in the Queen’s Speech our priorities can be delivered without legislation.

The statutory purpose for prisons set out what the prison system should seek to achieve. This remains what the whole system is working towards: protecting the public; reforming and rehabilitating offenders; preparing prisoners for life outside prison; and maintaining an environment that is safe and secure.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman works to a comprehensive set of Terms of Reference, which were updated in April of this year and will be kept under review. To further strengthen the role of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman we are developing a Protocol between the Ombudsman and Ministry of Justice to set out the role of both organisations in relation to each other, similar to the protocol agreed between HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and the Department earlier this year.