Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on improving support services for children whose parents are serving a term of imprisonment; and if he will include those services in his Department's tender for the Provision of HMPPS Prisoner, Family and Significant Other Services.

We recognise that families and significant other relationships can be a positive influence on reducing reoffending, and also encourage prisoners to maintain contact to improve prisoners’ health and well-being.  Strengthening these ties is one of the many important factors to successful rehabilitation, with studies showing that prisoners who receive family visits are 39% less likely to reoffend. We also recognise, however, that there are some circumstances where, owing to the nature of the offence, family contact would not be desirable.

Policy responsibility for children who may be vulnerable as a result of parental incarceration in England sits with the Secretary of State for Education, while policy responsibility is a devolved matter in Wales. As part of our commitment to strengthening family ties, we are working across Government with the Department of Education, Welsh Government and Other Government Departments, to understand how to best support children, who may be vulnerable, as a result of parental incarceration.

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) are in the process of developing requirements for the provision of the Prisoner, Family and Significant Other Services, that will operate from October 2022. As part of that process, HMPPS will be engaging with the external market to help inform and further develop the final specification for those services, which will subsequently be published within the procurement documentation and available to all potential bidders in January 2022.