Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service Offender Equalities Annual Report 2019-20, published on 26 November 2020, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for a higher proportion of (a) Jewish and (b) Muslim prisoners being on a Basic Incentives status than the average for prisoners of all religious groups.

In line with recommendation 24 of the Lammy review, to increase the fairness and effectiveness of the Incentives system, the new Incentives Policy Framework requires Governors to establish Incentive Fora involving both staff and prisoners.

These fora must review the fairness and effectiveness of the local Incentives policy, including the efficacy of the incentives offer. Fora must involve staff as well as white, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and Gypsy, Traveller and Romany prisoners and all prisoner groups with protected characteristics where present in the local population. Where data indicates disproportionate outcomes for BAME prisoners or people with other protected characteristics, the Governor is required to take steps to investigate and explain why these discrepancies exist and set out what reforms or actions are to be put in place to address such discrepancies.

A central quality assurance process has been introduced to monitor the new Incentives Forums and their outcomes. This will ensure that Prison Governors will be accountable in instances where the data indicates potential disproportionate outcomes for BAME service users.