Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing sentences for serial offenders on (a) public safety and (b) crime rates.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
This Government takes prolific offending extremely seriously, which is why we commissioned the Independent Sentencing Review (ISR) to specifically consider the sentencing approach in cases involving prolific offenders alongside, more broadly, how the sentencing framework could be reformed to reduce reoffending, cut crime, and make our streets safer.
We know prolific offenders are one of the most challenging cohorts with high levels of criminogenic needs, that typically commit a multitude of low-harm but high-nuisance offences, such as shoplifting, which attract maximum sentences of up to 12 months. The ISR referenced robust Ministry of Justice evidence which shows that offenders released from short prison sentences of less than 12 months reoffend at a higher rate than similar offenders given a community or suspended sentence. The ISR therefore recommended that the Government legislate to ensure that short custodial sentences are only used in exceptional circumstances. For prolific offenders specifically, the ISR recommended that the Government expand the availability of Intensive Supervision Courts (ISCs) to address prolific offending. The ISCs provide a robust alternative to custody, using enhanced community-based sentences to divert those at risk of facing custodial sentences of two years in the Crown Court, and twelve months in the Magistrates’ Court. International studies show that similar courts reduce arrests by 33% compared to standard sentences. We ran an Expression of Interest process to identify new sites which closed on 17 October 2025. We will announce successful new sites in the coming months.
The Sentencing Bill 2025 delivers many of the reforms recommended by the ISR. For instance, Clause 1 introduces a presumption for the courts to suspend short sentences of immediate custody of 12 months or less. We are not abolishing short sentences. They will continue to be available where an offender has committed an offence involving, or closely connected to, breach of a court order – including breaching the requirements of a previous suspended sentence order or committing a further offence. Short prison sentences will also be available where an individual is at significant risk of harm, and in exceptional circumstances.
Limiting the use of short sentences will not only help offenders to leave the merry-go-round of re-offending but reduce crime, leading to fewer victims and safer communities.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of probation services in preventing reoffending.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Probation services play a vital role in reducing reoffending, with a range of evidence to support this including:
Probation supports rehabilitation through close monitoring and management of offenders’ risk, supporting access to treatment, education, and employment, and through specialised programmes and services, including:
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) missed or (b) partial child maintenance payments on (i) children and (ii) resident parents.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is estimated to keep around 120,000 children out of poverty each year. CMS acknowledges the significant impact that missed or partial child maintenance payments can have on both children and resident parents.
Changes have been implemented to systems to identify at-risk cases allowing caseworkers to intervene at the earliest opportunity where a partial payment is made and before payments stop.
The CMS has taken steps to strengthen enforcement against non-resident parents who repeatedly fail to meet their child maintenance obligations. These powers allow the CMS to instruct an employer to deduct maintenance directly from the paying parent's wages, take money directly from a paying parent’s bank or building society account. If the paying parent is on certain benefits, deductions can be made at source.
CMS can also apply to the courts for a Liability Order which legally means the debt is legally recognised, allowing CMS to take further enforcement actions such as:
As part of a broader strategy, to ensure consistent financial support for children, the government is reforming the system to eliminate Direct Pay and expand the Collect and Pay service to improve compliance and reduce financial hardship for resident parents and children.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the approach to custody decisions in cases where a parent breaches a court order.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has not made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of child arrangements orders or of the approach to cases where a parent breaches a court order. However, the Government is committed to long-term reform of the family courts, working with our partners across the family justice system to deliver better outcomes for families. This includes making progress on implementing the recommendations from 2020’s Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases, known as the Harm Panel report.
Child arrangement orders give clarity to parties on where their child will live and if and when they will spend time with each of the parties. If a person has failed to comply with a Child Arrangements Order, the court has a range of powers it may exercise. This could include referring the parties to a Planning Together for Children programme or recommending they undertake a form of non-court dispute resolution, such as mediation. The court may make a more defined child arrangements order, which could involve a reconsideration of the child’s living or contact arrangements. Depending on the circumstances, the court also has the power to make an enforcement or suspended enforcement order, or to issue a fine or commit an individual to prison for being in contempt of court for breaching the terms of an order.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of Child Arrangements Orders.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has not made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of child arrangements orders or of the approach to cases where a parent breaches a court order. However, the Government is committed to long-term reform of the family courts, working with our partners across the family justice system to deliver better outcomes for families. This includes making progress on implementing the recommendations from 2020’s Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases, known as the Harm Panel report.
Child arrangement orders give clarity to parties on where their child will live and if and when they will spend time with each of the parties. If a person has failed to comply with a Child Arrangements Order, the court has a range of powers it may exercise. This could include referring the parties to a Planning Together for Children programme or recommending they undertake a form of non-court dispute resolution, such as mediation. The court may make a more defined child arrangements order, which could involve a reconsideration of the child’s living or contact arrangements. Depending on the circumstances, the court also has the power to make an enforcement or suspended enforcement order, or to issue a fine or commit an individual to prison for being in contempt of court for breaching the terms of an order.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of victim support during parole hearings.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The HMPPS Victim Contact Scheme (VCS) is a service for the victims of offenders who are convicted of specified violent, sexual or terrorism offences and are sentenced to twelve months or more imprisonment. Where it falls to the Parole Board to determine whether to release any one of those offenders, and the victim has chosen to receive the VCS service, victims may make representations about licence conditions to which the offender should be subject if the Board makes a release direction. The Scheme also allows the victim to submit a victim personal statement, to explain to the Board what has been the effect of offender’s crime(s) on them and their family.
Since 1 April 2025, victims may apply to observe an oral hearing conducted by the Parole Board, and the presumption is that the Board will approve applications unless there are compelling reasons not to. Observing an oral hearing provides victims with access to vital information about the prisoner and how parole panels assess the prisoner’s risk. In addition to support from their allocated Victim Liaison Officer, victims are assigned a Victim Representative from the Public Protection Group in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The Representative is experienced in the parole process. In addition, victims can also apply directly to the Parole Board for the parole hearing to be held in public and, if granted, they would also be allocated a Victim Representative to support them through this process.
We keep these arrangements and processes under regular review, taking account of feedback from victims. Indeed, victims are provided with an opportunity to submit feedback to HMPPS on their experience.
Through the Victim and Courts Bill, we will be updating the legislative framework that establishes the Victim Contact Scheme to bring victims currently served by different post-conviction communication schemes into the Victim Contact Scheme and provide a new route for other victims to request information via a dedicated helpline. This will give victims confidence about the routes available to receive information about their offender’s release.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the data tables accompanying the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority Annual Report 2024-25, published on 11 August 2025, what the significant extension of the programme scope is as a result of the closure of another programme for the Asylum Transformation Programme; and what that other programme was.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Asylum Transformation Programme consists of a number of projects delivering improvements to the people, processes and technology that make up the Asylum system. Those improvements are delivered across 4 operational areas or programme pillars; Asylum Caseworking, Accommodation and Support, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) Age Assessment, and Appeals and Litigation Review (ALAR). These pillars and associated projects are focused on improving the end to end asylum journey by streamlining, simplifying and digitalising processes to speed up decision making; establishing an asylum accommodation system with the right capacity and at optimum cost, whilst reducing the burden on the Appeals system.
Additional scope added to the Asylum Transformation Programme Business Case in April 25 came in two areas. Firstly, the introduction of new appeals focused projects which aim to ease the bottleneck in the appeals and courts system, aligning to the Government ambition to address challenges across the end-to-end asylum system. The second area of expansion enabled the rehousing of three in-flight Age Assessment projects which were added when the Sovereign Borders Programme closed.
The Asylum Transformation Programme (ATP) was rated Amber following its most recent Gate 0 review. Successful delivery of the programme to time, cost and quality was acknowledged as feasible but the Amber rating also denoted the existence of significant issues and subsequently led to recommendations from National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA). The recommendations were accepted and have provided additional mitigation against the risk NISTA identified.to Successful delivery of the programme. The programme proactively assesses government policy in this area as part of its planning and business case development cycle.
The Home Office Sovereign Borders Programme, which was working to support the previous Government ambitions around the Illegal Migration Act (IMA), was closed 2024. This led to a review of the in-flight projects within the Sovereign Borders Programme to identify and reallocate, any projects for which there continued to be a sound business case. Three in-flight Age Assessment projects were identified and have now moved into the scope of Asylum Transformation Programme (from Business Case 25/26). These projects aim to optimise and digitise the age assessment process through new technology, new tools and updated policy processes. This is in line with the programmes objectives to create a more resilient and effective asylum system.
A Move on function was established and has been Operational since August 2024. The Asylum Transformation Programme continues to work with Discontinuations and Move on teams to transform their joint processes to ensure a smooth transition from asylum support into mainstream services.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the data tables accompanying the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority Annual Report 2024-25, published on 11 August 2025, what the new priorities were that required an increase in scope of the Asylum Transformation Programme; and when the increase occurred.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Asylum Transformation Programme consists of a number of projects delivering improvements to the people, processes and technology that make up the Asylum system. Those improvements are delivered across 4 operational areas or programme pillars; Asylum Caseworking, Accommodation and Support, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) Age Assessment, and Appeals and Litigation Review (ALAR). These pillars and associated projects are focused on improving the end to end asylum journey by streamlining, simplifying and digitalising processes to speed up decision making; establishing an asylum accommodation system with the right capacity and at optimum cost, whilst reducing the burden on the Appeals system.
Additional scope added to the Asylum Transformation Programme Business Case in April 25 came in two areas. Firstly, the introduction of new appeals focused projects which aim to ease the bottleneck in the appeals and courts system, aligning to the Government ambition to address challenges across the end-to-end asylum system. The second area of expansion enabled the rehousing of three in-flight Age Assessment projects which were added when the Sovereign Borders Programme closed.
The Asylum Transformation Programme (ATP) was rated Amber following its most recent Gate 0 review. Successful delivery of the programme to time, cost and quality was acknowledged as feasible but the Amber rating also denoted the existence of significant issues and subsequently led to recommendations from National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA). The recommendations were accepted and have provided additional mitigation against the risk NISTA identified.to Successful delivery of the programme. The programme proactively assesses government policy in this area as part of its planning and business case development cycle.
The Home Office Sovereign Borders Programme, which was working to support the previous Government ambitions around the Illegal Migration Act (IMA), was closed 2024. This led to a review of the in-flight projects within the Sovereign Borders Programme to identify and reallocate, any projects for which there continued to be a sound business case. Three in-flight Age Assessment projects were identified and have now moved into the scope of Asylum Transformation Programme (from Business Case 25/26). These projects aim to optimise and digitise the age assessment process through new technology, new tools and updated policy processes. This is in line with the programmes objectives to create a more resilient and effective asylum system.
A Move on function was established and has been Operational since August 2024. The Asylum Transformation Programme continues to work with Discontinuations and Move on teams to transform their joint processes to ensure a smooth transition from asylum support into mainstream services.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority Annual Report 2024-25, published on 11 August 2025, what assessment has she made of the potential implications for her policies of the Asylum Transformation Programme amber Infrastructure and Projects Authority delivery confidence assessment.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Asylum Transformation Programme consists of a number of projects delivering improvements to the people, processes and technology that make up the Asylum system. Those improvements are delivered across 4 operational areas or programme pillars; Asylum Caseworking, Accommodation and Support, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) Age Assessment, and Appeals and Litigation Review (ALAR). These pillars and associated projects are focused on improving the end to end asylum journey by streamlining, simplifying and digitalising processes to speed up decision making; establishing an asylum accommodation system with the right capacity and at optimum cost, whilst reducing the burden on the Appeals system.
Additional scope added to the Asylum Transformation Programme Business Case in April 25 came in two areas. Firstly, the introduction of new appeals focused projects which aim to ease the bottleneck in the appeals and courts system, aligning to the Government ambition to address challenges across the end-to-end asylum system. The second area of expansion enabled the rehousing of three in-flight Age Assessment projects which were added when the Sovereign Borders Programme closed.
The Asylum Transformation Programme (ATP) was rated Amber following its most recent Gate 0 review. Successful delivery of the programme to time, cost and quality was acknowledged as feasible but the Amber rating also denoted the existence of significant issues and subsequently led to recommendations from National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA). The recommendations were accepted and have provided additional mitigation against the risk NISTA identified.to Successful delivery of the programme. The programme proactively assesses government policy in this area as part of its planning and business case development cycle.
The Home Office Sovereign Borders Programme, which was working to support the previous Government ambitions around the Illegal Migration Act (IMA), was closed 2024. This led to a review of the in-flight projects within the Sovereign Borders Programme to identify and reallocate, any projects for which there continued to be a sound business case. Three in-flight Age Assessment projects were identified and have now moved into the scope of Asylum Transformation Programme (from Business Case 25/26). These projects aim to optimise and digitise the age assessment process through new technology, new tools and updated policy processes. This is in line with the programmes objectives to create a more resilient and effective asylum system.
A Move on function was established and has been Operational since August 2024. The Asylum Transformation Programme continues to work with Discontinuations and Move on teams to transform their joint processes to ensure a smooth transition from asylum support into mainstream services.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the scope is of work to change (a) people capabilities, (b) processes and (c) technology for asylum (i) casework, (ii) accommodation and (iii) other support through the Asylum Transformation Programme.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Asylum Transformation Programme consists of a number of projects delivering improvements to the people, processes and technology that make up the Asylum system. Those improvements are delivered across 4 operational areas or programme pillars; Asylum Caseworking, Accommodation and Support, Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) Age Assessment, and Appeals and Litigation Review (ALAR). These pillars and associated projects are focused on improving the end to end asylum journey by streamlining, simplifying and digitalising processes to speed up decision making; establishing an asylum accommodation system with the right capacity and at optimum cost, whilst reducing the burden on the Appeals system.
Additional scope added to the Asylum Transformation Programme Business Case in April 25 came in two areas. Firstly, the introduction of new appeals focused projects which aim to ease the bottleneck in the appeals and courts system, aligning to the Government ambition to address challenges across the end-to-end asylum system. The second area of expansion enabled the rehousing of three in-flight Age Assessment projects which were added when the Sovereign Borders Programme closed.
The Asylum Transformation Programme (ATP) was rated Amber following its most recent Gate 0 review. Successful delivery of the programme to time, cost and quality was acknowledged as feasible but the Amber rating also denoted the existence of significant issues and subsequently led to recommendations from National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA). The recommendations were accepted and have provided additional mitigation against the risk NISTA identified.to Successful delivery of the programme. The programme proactively assesses government policy in this area as part of its planning and business case development cycle.
The Home Office Sovereign Borders Programme, which was working to support the previous Government ambitions around the Illegal Migration Act (IMA), was closed 2024. This led to a review of the in-flight projects within the Sovereign Borders Programme to identify and reallocate, any projects for which there continued to be a sound business case. Three in-flight Age Assessment projects were identified and have now moved into the scope of Asylum Transformation Programme (from Business Case 25/26). These projects aim to optimise and digitise the age assessment process through new technology, new tools and updated policy processes. This is in line with the programmes objectives to create a more resilient and effective asylum system.
A Move on function was established and has been Operational since August 2024. The Asylum Transformation Programme continues to work with Discontinuations and Move on teams to transform their joint processes to ensure a smooth transition from asylum support into mainstream services.