Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Risk Assessed Recall Review applications on behalf of prisoners serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection have been (a) submitted, (b) accepted, and (c) directed for release, in each month since November 2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Since 1 November 2024, officials in the Public Protection Casework Section (PPCS) in HMPPS has on behalf of the Secretary of State considered the suitability of every newly recalled IPP prisoner for re-release under RARR. That means that the recalled offender does not need to make an application for RARR. In each case, officials in PPCS will have regard to any recommendation made by the offender’s community offender manager. The number of recalled IPP offenders re-released via RARR in each month from 1 November 2024 to 30 September 2025 is given in the table below.
Year | Month | Release Decisions |
2024 | November | 0 |
2024 | December | 3 |
2025 | January | 8 |
2025 | February | 5 |
2025 | March | 8 |
2025 | April | 4 |
2025 | May | 4 |
2025 | June | 8 |
2025 | July | 7 |
2025 | August | 1 |
2025 | September | 2 |
Note:
Data quality: The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
We have provided the RARR release data up to 30 September 2025 as we have only published general release data up to 30 September 2025.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the rate of recidivism for hare coursing in the most recent period for which reporting is available.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alison Hume (Labour - Scarborough and Whitby)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the national rollout of the new child-focused family court model adequately identifies and responds to cases of parental alienation.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government does not recognise the concept of “parental alienation” and does not believe it is a syndrome capable of diagnosis. We are working with the Family Procedure Rule Committee to limit the instruction of unregulated experts, including unregulated “parental alienation” experts.
The Family Justice Council guidance on “Responding to a Child’s Unexplained Reluctance, Resistance or Refusal to Spend Time with a Parent and Allegations of Alienating Behaviour” provides a clear framework for assessing whether alienating behaviours are present.
The guidance clarifies that the child's perspective should be central, emphasising an understanding of their experiences and reasons for rejecting a parent. The guidance is clear that where the court finds that domestic abuse has occurred then the child’s rejection of the parent may be appropriate and justified.
The Child Focused Model prioritises early identification of risk and the voice of the child is amplified through a ‘Child Impact Report’. In addition, victims of domestic abuse are offered specialist support from an Independent Domestic Violence Adviser (IDVA), which includes the offer of in-court support.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of people who received a sentence of unpaid work failed to (a) start and (b) complete their sentence in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The data requested can be found in the following table:
Sentence Financial Year | % individuals who failed to start UPW | % individuals who failed to complete UPW |
2021/22* | 8.4% | 40.7% |
2022/23 | 7.8% | 36.4% |
2023/24 | 6.2% | 34.2% |
2024/25 | 6.1% | 36.7% |
Periods marked with an asterisk (*) indicate incomplete performance years. The data provided is from July 2021, the month following the reunification of the Probation Service.
All data has been sourced from nDelius on 13/04/2026. While this data has 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.
Please note, data relating to those sentenced in 2025/26 has not been provided as recording of this period is still ongoing and it would therefore not portray a true reflection of current performance.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether their Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the past 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice has rolled out general purpose artificial intelligence tools like Microsoft Copilot across the Department to enhance productivity and support the work of all staff, including policy professionals. AI is being used to assist the policy-making process with tasks like brainstorming ideas, clarifying drafting, and searching for publicly available information. The Department encourages officials to always cross-validate the outputs of AI rather than blindly trusting them, applying human judgement and oversight as appropriate.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) convicted for aggravated taking of a vehicle for each year in 2020-2024 and (b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by year of conviction and number of previous occasions the offender has been convicted for aggravated taking of a vehicle, where the number of occasions was 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9+ previous convictions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is provided in the attached excel tables. These tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
(a) The number of offenders who were convicted of the specified offence (all disposal types); and,
(b) The number of offenders who were convicted of the specified offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions for that specified offence.
This data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
To note, figures from 2020 and 2021 have been affected by measures taken to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic and the subsequent effect this has had on the court backlog. Additionally, figures from 2022 will have been affected by the Criminal Bar Association strikes.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) convicted of theft from a motor vehicle for each year in 2020-2024 and (b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by year of conviction and number of previous occasions the offender has been convicted of theft from a motor vehicle, where the number of occasions was 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9+ previous convictions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is provided in the attached excel tables. These tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
(a) The number of offenders who were convicted of the specified offence (all disposal types); and,
(b) The number of offenders who were convicted of the specified offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions for that specified offence.
This data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
To note, figures from 2020 and 2021 have been affected by measures taken to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic and the subsequent effect this has had on the court backlog. Additionally, figures from 2022 will have been affected by the Criminal Bar Association strikes.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) convicted of theft of a pedal cycle for each year in 2020-2024 and (b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by year of conviction and number of previous occasions the offender has been convicted for theft of a pedal cycle, where the number of occasions was 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9+ previous convictions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is provided in the attached excel tables. These tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
(a) The number of offenders who were convicted of the specified offence (all disposal types); and,
(b) The number of offenders who were convicted of the specified offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions for that specified offence.
This data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
To note, figures from 2020 and 2021 have been affected by measures taken to combat the COVID-19 Pandemic and the subsequent effect this has had on the court backlog. Additionally, figures from 2022 will have been affected by the Criminal Bar Association strikes.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 4 September 2025 to Question 70519 on Public Inquiries, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of the Nottingham Inquiry.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In fulfilment of the PM’s commitment, this Government established a statutory Inquiry into the horrific attacks that took place in Nottingham in 2023. The Inquiry was formally announced by the previous Lord Chancellor to Parliament on 22 April.
The total cost of the Nottingham Inquiry from its commencement up to 31/03/26 is £10.9 million.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of individuals sentenced to an unpaid work requirement last year were given a (a) community order, (b) suspended sentence order, (c) youth rehabilitation order, (d) enforcement order and (e) supervision default order.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The data requested are provided in the attached excel tables.
The decision as to what type of order to impose at sentence, or when imposing any other type of Order in court, is a matter for our independent judiciary, taking into account all the circumstances of the case before them.