Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of people given Community Payback as a community sentence did not complete the work assigned to them in each year since 2014.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is investing an additional £93m in Community Payback over three years. This will allow us to increase delivery of Community Payback back to pre-covid levels of delivery.
We have launched a national campaign to recruit more than 500 additional Community Payback staff to bolster resources in every probation region and new staff are arriving in post. The additional staffing will enable us to boost delivery of Community Payback to pre-covid levels.
There will be a particular focus on delivering more outdoor projects that improve local areas, sustainability focussed and allow the public to see justice being done.
The table below shows how many Community Payback requirements and the proportion that were not completed in each year since 2014. The data covers all reasons why Community Payback requirements may not have been completed including offender deaths, deportation, orders revoked and resentenced, successful appeals and Suspended Sentence Order (SSO) activated (i.e. offender imprisoned for the remainder of their sentence).
Year | Community Payback Requirements Not Completed | Proportion of Community Payback Requirements Not Completed |
2014 | 13,521 | 42.5% |
2015 | 14,384 | 34.6% |
2016 | 14,535 | 32.5% |
2017 | 16,417 | 39.8% |
2018 | 16,088 | 45.1% |
2019 | 16,541 | 43.3% |
2020 | 14,154 | 52.2% |
2021 | 15,776 | 44.4% |
2022 | 17,949 | 35.4% |
2023 | 19,135 | 34.1% |
Data as of 7 March 2024.
Please note these data relate to Community Payback requirements, not individuals or hours. An individual may have had multiple Community Payback requirements across the time period and all of these have been counted separately. It is important to note that some of those incomplete Community Payback requirements may have a number of hours completed.
Owing to the amalgamation of multiple legacy IT systems, with the introduction of Transforming Rehabilitation back in 2014, a slightly different methodology has been utilised to identify those cases where Community Payback had not been completed, in the years 2014 and 2015. This has been utilised to ensure that data are accurate, representative and consistent across the period shown.
The year listed is when the Community Payback requirement was terminated.
Data are sourced from nDelius and while these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people did not complete community payback in each year since 2014.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is investing an additional £93m in Community Payback over three years. This will allow us to increase delivery of Community Payback back to pre-covid levels of delivery.
We have launched a national campaign to recruit more than 500 additional Community Payback staff to bolster resources in every probation region and new staff are arriving in post. The additional staffing will enable us to boost delivery of Community Payback to pre-covid levels.
There will be a particular focus on delivering more outdoor projects that improve local areas, sustainability focussed and allow the public to see justice being done.
The table below shows how many Community Payback requirements and the proportion that were not completed in each year since 2014. The data covers all reasons why Community Payback requirements may not have been completed including offender deaths, deportation, orders revoked and resentenced, successful appeals and Suspended Sentence Order (SSO) activated (i.e. offender imprisoned for the remainder of their sentence).
Year | Community Payback Requirements Not Completed | Proportion of Community Payback Requirements Not Completed |
2014 | 13,521 | 42.5% |
2015 | 14,384 | 34.6% |
2016 | 14,535 | 32.5% |
2017 | 16,417 | 39.8% |
2018 | 16,088 | 45.1% |
2019 | 16,541 | 43.3% |
2020 | 14,154 | 52.2% |
2021 | 15,776 | 44.4% |
2022 | 17,949 | 35.4% |
2023 | 19,135 | 34.1% |
Data as of 7 March 2024.
Please note these data relate to Community Payback requirements, not individuals or hours. An individual may have had multiple Community Payback requirements across the time period and all of these have been counted separately. It is important to note that some of those incomplete Community Payback requirements may have a number of hours completed.
Owing to the amalgamation of multiple legacy IT systems, with the introduction of Transforming Rehabilitation back in 2014, a slightly different methodology has been utilised to identify those cases where Community Payback had not been completed, in the years 2014 and 2015. This has been utilised to ensure that data are accurate, representative and consistent across the period shown.
The year listed is when the Community Payback requirement was terminated.
Data are sourced from nDelius and while these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.
Asked by: Lord Leigh of Hurley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support healthcare facilities in developing countries to have clean water, decent toilets and better hygiene, as a cost-effective means for reducing the global infectious disease burden.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to supporting access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), including in healthcare facilities, as part of our approach to Ending Preventable Deaths. Our £18.5m WASH Systems for Health programme will support governments in low- and lower-middle income countries to develop stronger systems crucial to the delivery of sustainable and climate resilient WASH services - a vital part of reducing the global infectious disease burden. Additionally, the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition, funded by the UK, trained 460,000 health workers on hygiene improvements, and supported 14,800 facilities with WASH supplies.
Asked by: Lord Smith of Hindhead (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assistance they can give to organisations providing support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine who want to refurbish boats confiscated from illegal English Channel crossings to help aid the demand for small boats for medical evacuations along the Dnipro River.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The migrant vessels, which this campaign is endeavouring to persuade the Home Office to send to Ukraine, are totally unsuitable for the purposes suggested. They have been assessed by Home Office experts as valueless from a military perspective and lethally dangerous otherwise, with at least 20 deaths linked to them since August 2023 alone.
The Home Office’s opposition to sending these vessels to Ukraine is well-founded and is informed by the assessment of border security and military experts.
The UK remains firmly committed to supporting Ukraine in their fight against Russian aggression. To date, we have provided almost £12bn in total military, humanitarian, and economic support. This includes £2.5bn in military aid for 2024/25, an increase of £200m on the previous two years.
We continue to work closely with the Ukrainian Government, together with our international partners, to ensure that their Armed Forces receive the support they need.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many deaths have been recorded at HMP Wandsworth since 30 June 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Deaths recorded by prison are published as part of our Safety in Custody statistics, updated quarterly, and available in the Deaths Data Tool at the following link: Safety in custody: quarterly update to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Please note that deaths at Wandsworth are currently published from 30 June 2023 – end of December 2023. Figures to the end of March 2024 are not due for publication until April 2024 and cannot be released at this time.
Deaths in prison custody figures include all deaths of prisoners arising from incidents during prison custody. They include deaths of prisoners while released on temporary license (ROTL) for medical reasons but exclude other types of ROTL where the state has less direct responsibility.
In addition to deaths in prison custody which occur in hospitals, hospices or nursing homes, a small proportion will occur while in an ambulance on the way to hospital, while the prisoner is under escort.
Every death in custody is a tragedy and we continue to do all we can to improve the safety of prisoners.
We have implemented a revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) case management approach across the prison estate. Revisions in ACCT v6 include a stronger emphasis on taking a person-centred approach; better multi-disciplinary team working; a consistent quality assurance process and an improved focus on identifying and addressing an individual’s risks, triggers and protective factors.
We are implementing a new safety training package for staff. It brings together related safety topics, including suicide and self-harm prevention and understanding risks, triggers and protective factors.
We fund Samaritans through a grant providing total funding of just under £2 million between 2022 and 2025. This is primarily for the delivery of the Listener scheme (through which selected prisoners are trained to provide support to fellow prisoners in emotional distress).
We have also worked with Samaritans to develop a postvention response to providing support in the period following a self-inflicted death in order to reduce the risk of further deaths. This has been successfully piloted and the renewed grant includes funding for this service to be maintained until March 2025.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to raise awareness of what can be done to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Prevention and early intervention are paramount to preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and we want to ensure that every family receives the support and guidance they need during the early days of parenthood.
Health visitors have an important role supporting child health, wellbeing, and parenting confidence. They support families in improving health literacy, managing minor illnesses, and preventing accidents, including promoting safe sleeping for babies. Health visitors can also work with early years services to ensure that safer sleep messages are promoted across early years services. Further information is available at the following link:
The Department is also working alongside NHS England and the National Child Mortality Database (NMCD) to increase the data bank on SIDS, to increase our evidence base, understanding, and inform actions and policy.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking in response to the Kimberley Liu: Prevention of future deaths report, published on December 29, 2023.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department takes all prevention of future death reports seriously, including working with healthcare partners where appropriate to develop our responses. We are conscious of the statutory deadline for these reports, and the Department will provide a formal response in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the outcomes of the Tenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; and if she will have discussions with the Leader of the House on making parliamentary time available for scrutiny of those outcomes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is the number one entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability, and death in this country. It is responsible for 80,000 deaths in the United Kingdom a year, and one in four of all UK cancer deaths. It costs our country £17 billion a year, £14 billion of which is through lost productivity alone. It puts huge pressure on the National Health Service and social care, costing over £3 billion a year. This is why the Government is committed to creating the first smokefree generation, ensuring no child born after 1 January 2009 will ever legally be sold tobacco.
The tenth Conference of Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco control was an opportunity for the UK to showcase our international leadership on tobacco control. No decisions from COP10 will impact our plans to create the first smokefree generation, or our policies on vaping. I will update the House shortly on the outcomes from COP10.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released under the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) began in October 2023, and an analysis of its use will be based on one year’s worth of data and published on an annual basis in line with other statistics, such as deaths of offenders in the community.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential distress caused to spousal pension recipients by Teachers’ Pensions requiring recipients whose spouses retired before January 2007 to confirm annually that they are not living with a new partner; and what assessment they have made of how many such recipients are now living with new partners.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The beneficiaries of spouses who were members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) who retired before January 2007 are required to complete an annual declaration confirming that they continue to be entitled to receive a survivor’s pension from the Scheme. This process was introduced in 2016 following the identification of a number of cases where entitlement under Scheme rules had ended due to the beneficiary remarrying, entering a civil partnership or living with another person as if married or in a civil partnership. These cases resulted in some significant overpayments needing to be repaid.
The possible impact of the letter on the recipient was considered when the process was established and is subject to discussion with the Teachers’ Pension Scheme Advisory Board, however the department considers that this preventative measure is proportionate and preferable to the alternative. The scheme administrator does not collect information on how many recipients are living with new partners as it is not necessary for the administration of the scheme.
The review referred to in The Guardian on 10 February 2024 was in relation to a separate data exercise where some details of a recipient of TPS benefits match those of a recorded death. This is a standard check carried out by pension scheme administrators to reduce instances of fraud and error leading to overpayments which ultimately cost the taxpayer if they cannot be recovered.
Teachers’ Pensions matches the data of beneficiaries and members who have a pension in payment annually with deaths recorded on the death register. Where there is a sufficiently strong match, the recipient is asked to complete a declaration of ongoing entitlement. The scheme administrator does not record incorrect data about the member from this match and the pension is only suspended if a declaration is not received within 28 days. This is to minimise any potential overpayment.
The review was an internal consideration of the processes and it was concluded that they remain appropriate, but that more detailed guidance on the Teachers’ Pensions website would be helpful for those who may be affected. Updated information is currently being prepared.