Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of trends in the number of convictions for violence against women in the last 12 months.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people received a (a) custodial and (b) non-custodial sentence for assault of a (i) police officer and (ii) prison officer in each year since 2007; and what the average custodial sentence for those offences was.

Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people convicted of violent crime who did not receive a custodial sentence had (a) zero, (b) between one and four, (c) between five and nine, (d) between 10 and 15, (e) between 16 and 25, (f) between 26 and 50, (g) between 51 and 75, (h) between 76 and 100 and (i) 101 or more (A) convictions and (B) cautions for previous offences of any type in each year since 2007.

Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of people convicted of violent offences who previously had (a) none, (b) 1-4, (c) 5-9, (d) 10-15, (e) 16-25, (f) 26-50, (g) 51-75, (h) 76-100 and (i) 101 or more convictions received (A) an immediate custodial sentence, (B) a suspended sentence and (C) a community sentence in each of the last 16 years.

Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, with reference to the Answer of 20 January 2023 to Question 125287 on Rape: Prosecutions, how many (a) completed prosecutions and (b) convictions there were for violent crime in each quarter from the start of January 2005 to the end of September 2015.

Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not have a formal definition for ‘violent crime’, but it does hold management information on its Case Management System showing the number of defendants allocated the Principal Offence Categories of either Homicide or Offences Against the Person at completion of prosecution. The Principal Offence Category indicates the most serious offence with which a defendant is charged.

The tables below show the number of completed prosecutions and convictions for Homicide and Offences Against the Person from the start of January 2005 to the end of September 2015. The data provided in the tables is in financial quarters.

‘Total completed prosecutions’ refer to the conclusion of a prosecution case against a defendant such as conviction after trial, guilty plea, acquittal, or the prosecution against the defendant being dropped. ‘Convictions’ refer to convictions after trial and guilty pleas.

Homicide

Offences against the person

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will implement a public health approach to preventing (a) violence and (b) sexual violence for (i) boys and (ii) men.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

Since 2019, the Government has invested over £160m in 20 Violence Reduction Unit’s (VRUs) in England and Wales. VRUs are expected to deliver a ‘whole system’, public health approach to tackling violence, bringing together key partners to identify the local drivers and root-causes of serious violence and implementing a multi-agency response to them. VRUs are supported to adhere to the six key pillars of the public health approach to reduce violence, as set out by Public Health England (now OHID).

The Youth Endowment Fund was established in 2019, which will invest £200m over 10 years to identify, and build an evidence base around, what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violence and making this information accessible to practitioners.

The Serious Violence Duty introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (PCSC 2022), requires a range of specified authorities, such as, the police, local government, youth offending teams, health, and probation services, to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities, enabled by new powers to share data and information. Specified authorities are encouraged to take a public health approach in executing their responsibilities under the Act. The PCSC Act does not define serious violence for the purposes of the Duty but makes clear that local areas may also consider domestic abuse and sexual offences as part of their strategies, particularly where preventative activity is directed at risk factors which are shared between these crimes and public space youth violence.

The Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy (published July 2021) and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan (published March 2022) contain over 100 cross government commitments and take a whole system approach to tackling these crimes. Commitments in these strategies cover all victims, including men and boys.

In 2021, we published the Rape Review Action Plan and set out a series of commitments to deliver cross-system improvements in the criminal justice response to rape. The National Operating Model, developed through Operation Soteria, provides policing with new training and tools to build strong cases and understand patterns of sexual offending, and seeks to support officers to building stronger cases, understand sexual offending behaviour and ultimately identify and disrupt offenders at the earliest opportunity.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with His Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons on the number of reported (a) assaults, (b) serious assaults, (c) prisoner assaults, (d) serious prisoner assaults, (e) assaults on staff and (f) serious assaults on staff at HMP Parc in 2023.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

HMPPS takes the findings of every HMI Prisons inspection seriously and responds to each with a detailed action plan that seeks to address all concerns raised within the inspection report. For privately run prisons, HMPPS works closely with the Prison operator to ensure that the expected standards are met, through the local controller team and contractual escalation route, if required. HMPPS officials meet with HMIP regularly to discuss the general landscape across the prison estate and will continue to do so. HMP and YOI Parc assess all prisoners who transfer into the prison including reviewing all previous information held on the prisoners to inform intelligence.

HMPPS continues to work extensively with G4S and is closely overseeing the prison to improve safety and reduce harm. All establishments are required to have a safety strategy in place, which includes actions to address violence. HMPPS remains committed to providing a safe, decent and secure environment for all committed to our care.

As HMP and YOI Parc is a privately operated prison, HMPPS do not hold data relating to the G4S workforce, and recruitment of healthcare staff is the responsibility of the Local Health Board, therefore, HMPPS are not the data holder for healthcare staffing information.

The information requested on finds in prisons is published at HMPPS annual digest: HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2022 to March 2023 - GOV.UK, specifically in tables 8.2b, 8.3 and 8.4 of this link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c143b41e10bf000e17cf9e/8.__Finds.ods.

Data on assaults are found in tables 8a-8f: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/662a24fb690acb1c0ba7e57c/Safety-in-custody-summary-q4-2023_final_table.xlsx.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with G4S on the number of reported (a) assaults, (b) serious assaults, (c) prisoner assaults, (d) serious prisoner assaults, (e) assaults on staff and (f) serious assaults on staff at HMP Parc in 2023.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

HMPPS takes the findings of every HMI Prisons inspection seriously and responds to each with a detailed action plan that seeks to address all concerns raised within the inspection report. For privately run prisons, HMPPS works closely with the Prison operator to ensure that the expected standards are met, through the local controller team and contractual escalation route, if required. HMPPS officials meet with HMIP regularly to discuss the general landscape across the prison estate and will continue to do so. HMP and YOI Parc assess all prisoners who transfer into the prison including reviewing all previous information held on the prisoners to inform intelligence.

HMPPS continues to work extensively with G4S and is closely overseeing the prison to improve safety and reduce harm. All establishments are required to have a safety strategy in place, which includes actions to address violence. HMPPS remains committed to providing a safe, decent and secure environment for all committed to our care.

As HMP and YOI Parc is a privately operated prison, HMPPS do not hold data relating to the G4S workforce, and recruitment of healthcare staff is the responsibility of the Local Health Board, therefore, HMPPS are not the data holder for healthcare staffing information.

The information requested on finds in prisons is published at HMPPS annual digest: HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2022 to March 2023 - GOV.UK, specifically in tables 8.2b, 8.3 and 8.4 of this link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c143b41e10bf000e17cf9e/8.__Finds.ods.

Data on assaults are found in tables 8a-8f: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/662a24fb690acb1c0ba7e57c/Safety-in-custody-summary-q4-2023_final_table.xlsx.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the implementation of a violence reduction strategy at HMP Parc.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

HMPPS takes the findings of every HMI Prisons inspection seriously and responds to each with a detailed action plan that seeks to address all concerns raised within the inspection report. For privately run prisons, HMPPS works closely with the Prison operator to ensure that the expected standards are met, through the local controller team and contractual escalation route, if required. HMPPS officials meet with HMIP regularly to discuss the general landscape across the prison estate and will continue to do so. HMP and YOI Parc assess all prisoners who transfer into the prison including reviewing all previous information held on the prisoners to inform intelligence.

HMPPS continues to work extensively with G4S and is closely overseeing the prison to improve safety and reduce harm. All establishments are required to have a safety strategy in place, which includes actions to address violence. HMPPS remains committed to providing a safe, decent and secure environment for all committed to our care.

As HMP and YOI Parc is a privately operated prison, HMPPS do not hold data relating to the G4S workforce, and recruitment of healthcare staff is the responsibility of the Local Health Board, therefore, HMPPS are not the data holder for healthcare staffing information.

The information requested on finds in prisons is published at HMPPS annual digest: HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2022 to March 2023 - GOV.UK, specifically in tables 8.2b, 8.3 and 8.4 of this link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c143b41e10bf000e17cf9e/8.__Finds.ods.

Data on assaults are found in tables 8a-8f: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/662a24fb690acb1c0ba7e57c/Safety-in-custody-summary-q4-2023_final_table.xlsx.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of illegal immigration on levels of violent crime.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Government does routinely publish details of the nationalities of those serving a prison sentence which can be found at Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). However, no assessment of the impact of illegal migration on violent crime has been carried out.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidences of (a) assault and (b) serious assault were committed against prison staff at (i) HMP Long Lartin and (ii) HMP Whitemoor in each of the last four years.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We publish the number of assaults and serious assaults against prison staff, broken down by establishment, as part of our Safety in Custody statistics, in Table 8e and 8f of the summary tables, available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/662a24fb690acb1c0ba7e57c/Safety-in-custody-summary-q4-2023_final_table.xlsx.

Totals for those occurring at HMP Long Lartin can be seen at row 94, and for HMP Whitemoor at row 151.

Improving the safety of staff and prisoners is our priority and while overall assault rates remain below pre-pandemic levels, we will continue to protect our hardworking staff through our £100 million security investment that led to X-ray body scanners, airport style security measures and drug dogs.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of cannabis use on violent crime.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

No recent assessment has been made. Cannabis is controlled as a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 as there is clear scientific and medical evidence that cannabis is a harmful drug which can damage people’s mental and physical health, and harms individuals and communities.

Cannabis continues to be the most commonly used drug and around 21% of adults starting treatment between 2021 and 2022 said they had a problem with cannabis. Cannabis poses a large number of serious health risks, including psychological disorders such as psychosis and respiratory illness, particularly given recent increases in potency.

We know from Dame Carol Black’s landmark review into drugs that there are clear links between the trade in illicit drugs and violence and exploitation.

Illicit drug use also makes our communities less safe, with links to anti-social behaviour in public spaces.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-27215 by Angela Constance on 13 May 2024, whether it will provide a breakdown of the figures by (a) remand and (b) convicted population, also broken down by those aged (i) under 16, (ii) between 16 and 18 and (iii) between 19 and 21.

Answered by Constance, Angela - Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs

On the morning of 6 May 2024 there were 192 people under the age of 21 held in the prison estate, and a further 96 aged 21. This population is broken down by index offence group, age group and legal status as defined in the question in the following table.

The age categories as defined expand the population subgroup previously analysed. We have therefore provided age groups (iii).a) the 19-20 age group and (iii).b) 21-year-olds.

The legal status categories provided differ from our normal presentation as specified in the question. The group "(a) remand" includes only untried prisoners, while group "(b) convicted" includes both those serving a sentence and those convicted awaiting sentencing (which would normally be included in the "remand" category in our statistical outputs).

Where individuals in custody are accused or convicted of multiple offences, these are summarised by index offence. This is the offence for which they have received the longest sentence or, where they are on remand, which would on average receive the longest sentence. Some offences cannot be classified in this way because the charges originate in other jurisdictions or because the data required was not available at the time the snapshot was taken.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people are currently housed in the prison estate, broken down by the category of offence for which they have been charged or convicted.

Answered by Constance, Angela - Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs

On the morning of Monday 6th May 2024 there were 192 people under the age of 21 held in the prison estate. This population is broken down by index offence group in the following table.

Where individuals in custody are accused or convicted of multiple offences, these are summarised by index offence. This is the offence for which they have received the longest sentence or, where they are on remand, which would on average receive the longest sentence. Some offences cannot be classified in this way because the charges originate in other jurisdictions or because the data required was not available at the time the snapshot was taken.

Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are currently being held in Scotland's prison estate for non-violent offences, broken down by offence type.

Answered by Constance, Angela - Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs

The prison population on the morning of 6 May 2024 was 8,203 in custody. Excluding people held for index offences in Group 1 (Non-Sexual Crimes of Violence) or where the index offence could not be classified or originated outwith Scotland, provides a population of 3,927 people.

Further excluding Group 2 (Sexual Crimes) index offences of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault this population totals 2,466.

The full prison population is broken down by index offence type in the following table.

Where individuals in custody are accused or convicted of multiple offences, these are summarised by index offence. This is the offence for which they have received the longest sentence or, where they are on remand, which would on average receive the longest sentence. Each may have other associated offences for which they have received shorter sentences, or for which they have not yet been convicted, which may include acts of violence. Some offences cannot be classified in this way because the charges originate in other jurisdictions or because the data required were not available at the time the snapshot was taken.