Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the proven reoffending rate is for the adult cohort convicted of shoplifting offences who had been sentenced to immediate custody within the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The proven reoffending rate for adult offenders with an index offence of shoplifting between 2019/20 and 2023/24 are provided in the attached Excel spreadsheet. This includes the overall adult cohort, as well as breakdowns for adults released from custody, and adults given non-custodial sentences or cautions between 2019/20 and 2023/24.
The proven reoffending rate is calculated using a 12-month follow-up period, allowing an additional 6 months for offences to be proven in court.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, to publish a list of all external organisations, including women’s, men’s, and specialist advocacy groups, that received funding, consultancy fees, or formal engagement contracts during the development of revised domestic‑abuse guidance and safeguarding processes in private‑law children cases; and to set out the total expenditure associated with this work.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Under this Government the Ministry of Justice has not provided funding, paid consultancy fees, or entered into formal engagement contracts with external organisations in developing revised domestic abuse guidance or safeguarding processes in private law children cases.
Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the proven reoffending rate is for the adult cohort convicted of shoplifting offences within the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The proven reoffending rate for adult offenders with an index offence of shoplifting between 2019/20 and 2023/24 are provided in the attached Excel spreadsheet. This includes the overall adult cohort, as well as breakdowns for adults released from custody, and adults given non-custodial sentences or cautions between 2019/20 and 2023/24.
The proven reoffending rate is calculated using a 12-month follow-up period, allowing an additional 6 months for offences to be proven in court.
Asked by: Claire Hazelgrove (Labour - Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help reduce violent reoffending among young people who are on bail.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government recognises the importance of reducing offending, including violent reoffending, among children who are on bail through close supervision and high levels of support by skilled staff. We are investing £5 million over the next three years in strengthening the bail packages available for children, so that courts have access to more robust community-based options that both support children to make positive changes and help manage the risk of offending. We are also reforming the annual youth remand funding arrangements to further support greater local authority investment in high-quality community alternatives to custodial remand, including suitable community placements (specialist fostering and accommodation), family support and enhanced Bail Intensive Supervision and Support services. This builds on the Greater Manchester Youth Remand Funding pilot, which has demonstrated promising early findings in improving their bail and community remand offer regionally, to keep children and communities safe. We are now offering multi-year funding to local authorities to scale up this regional model, encouraging areas to collaborate in developing a broader range of bail support options to meet the needs of children and protect the public.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has assessed the potential impact of recent changes to planned core education hours in public sector prisons on its compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Department complies with the ongoing Public Sector Equality Duty to have due regard to the potential equality impacts of decisions to make changes to the provision of education in prisons at both a national and local level. Changes to planned core education hours vary across different prisons because the national funding formula for prison education has been refreshed, to ensure that allocations are a fair reflection of prison population, function and regional cost differences. Governors and Heads of Education, Skills and Work undertake needs analysis to understand the characteristics and needs of their local prison population, and commission education based on this information. New Core Education contracts also have strengthened requirements around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Providers are required to adhere to the Public Sector Equality Duty, and must continuously maintain an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion action plan to ensure equity of access to learning.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many individuals were assessed or monitored by the Joint Extremism Unit in each calendar year from 2017 to 2025 inclusive, broken down by the extremism or risk classification category used internally by the Unit.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Data on the number of people serving custodial sentences for terrorist offences are published by the Home Office as part of its quarterly statistical bulletin Operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent legislation: Arrests, outcomes, and stop and search, Great Britain, which is available at: Operation of police powers under TACT 2000, to December 2025 - GOV.UK
Details of the risk classification are withheld on the grounds of national security.
The Joint Extremism Unit also monitors and assesses individuals who have not been convicted of terrorism or terrorism-connected offences, but nevertheless represent terrorist risk. Data regarding these individuals are also withheld on national security grounds.
Asked by: Joy Morrissey (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of cases involving CAFCASS resulted in recommendations for primary residence with (a) mothers and (b) fathers in the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is not held centrally by the Department or Cafcass. It may be held in court records, but to determine that and obtain it would require an analysis of individual case files at a disproportionate cost.
We are committed to ensuring that the family justice system delivers safe outcomes that support children to succeed and thrive. The welfare checklist ensures that courts consider, among other things, the quality of the child’s relationship with each parent when making decisions about who a child should live or otherwise spend time with, irrespective of the gender of the parent. Family Courts will continue to support children having a relationship with both of their parents where such involvement is safe, meaningful and positive for the child.
Asked by: Joy Morrissey (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of the adequacy of case outcomes involving the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service for (a) fathers and (b) mothers.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is not held centrally by the Department or Cafcass. It may be held in court records, but to determine that and obtain it would require an analysis of individual case files at a disproportionate cost.
We are committed to ensuring that the family justice system delivers safe outcomes that support children to succeed and thrive. The welfare checklist ensures that courts consider, among other things, the quality of the child’s relationship with each parent when making decisions about who a child should live or otherwise spend time with, irrespective of the gender of the parent. Family Courts will continue to support children having a relationship with both of their parents where such involvement is safe, meaningful and positive for the child.
Asked by: Joy Morrissey (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has assessed trends in the level of regional variations in recommendations made by CAFCASS including differing outcomes for fathers.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is not held centrally by the Department or Cafcass. It may be held in court records, but to determine that and obtain it would require an analysis of individual case files at a disproportionate cost.
We are committed to ensuring that the family justice system delivers safe outcomes that support children to succeed and thrive. The welfare checklist ensures that courts consider, among other things, the quality of the child’s relationship with each parent when making decisions about who a child should live or otherwise spend time with, irrespective of the gender of the parent. Family Courts will continue to support children having a relationship with both of their parents where such involvement is safe, meaningful and positive for the child.
Asked by: Joy Morrissey (Conservative - Beaconsfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department collects data on the recommendations made by CAFCASS disaggregated by the gender of each parent.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is not held centrally by the Department or Cafcass. It may be held in court records, but to determine that and obtain it would require an analysis of individual case files at a disproportionate cost.
We are committed to ensuring that the family justice system delivers safe outcomes that support children to succeed and thrive. The welfare checklist ensures that courts consider, among other things, the quality of the child’s relationship with each parent when making decisions about who a child should live or otherwise spend time with, irrespective of the gender of the parent. Family Courts will continue to support children having a relationship with both of their parents where such involvement is safe, meaningful and positive for the child.