Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons' publication entitled Report on an unannounced inspection of HMYOI Wetherby (20 November - 7 December 2023), published on 5 March 2024, what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken to respond to discrimination complaints.

HMYOI Wetherby has put measures in place to improve the timeliness and quality of discrimination complaint responses. A tiered quality-assurance process has been introduced for discrimination incident reporting forms (DIRFs); Equality Advisors and the Head of Equalities will quality-assess all DIRF cases, monitoring the promptness and quality of investigation responses. An escalation process, overseen by the Deputy Governor, is in place for any overdue responses.

In addition, the monthly meetings of the Senior Leadership Team and Equality Action Group will discuss the DIRFs submitted during the previous month, to identify any trends relating to discrimination.