Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his department is taking steps to deliver the recommendation from the Independent Sentencing Review of increased funding for the voluntary sector to support the Probation Service.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
I recognise the valuable role of the thousands of Voluntary Sector organisations that work in partnership with Prisons and Probation to provide vital support to people serving their sentence in prison and returning to the community.
We welcome the Independent Sentencing Review’s recommendation to explore how we can better harness the value of the Third Sector and build even stronger partnerships to enable better targeting of probation resource and improve outcomes for offenders.
We are currently in the process of re-procuring our commissioned rehabilitative services (CRS) contracts. 76% of current CRS contracts are led by the Third Sector. Our new contracts will improve on our current offering with expanded and improved consistency of service available in both custody and community.
We will continue to work with the Voluntary Sector as implementation of the Independent Sentencing Review progresses.
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the average sentence was for those found guilty of female genital mutilation in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and average custodial sentence lengths at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, including offences under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. They can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics
The table below provides the number of prosecutions over the past 5 years for offences under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. There have been no offenders sentenced to immediate custody during this period.
Offences under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 | Year ending 30 June 2023 | Year ending 30 June 2025 |
Proceeded against | 1 | 1 |
Asked by: Lord Swire (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions were brought for female genital mutilation in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and average custodial sentence lengths at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, including offences under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. They can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics
The table below provides the number of prosecutions over the past 5 years for offences under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. There have been no offenders sentenced to immediate custody during this period.
Offences under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 | Year ending 30 June 2023 | Year ending 30 June 2025 |
Proceeded against | 1 | 1 |
Asked by: Lord Garnier (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) male, and (2) female, prisoners who were aged 25 years or younger at the time of sentencing were serving a life sentence in custody with a tariff of 15 years or more in each year since 2022, categorised by ethnic group.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.
Table 1: Number of prisoners serving life sentence who were aged 25 years or younger at sentencing, with a tariff of 25 years or more, broken down by sex, ethnicity and imprisonment status.
| Ethnicity | Status | 30/06/22 | 30/06/23 | 30/06/24 | 20/06/25 |
Male | Asian/Asian British | Unreleased Life | 153 | 177 | 203 | 205 |
Black/Black British | Unreleased Life | 487 | 521 | 578 | 612 | |
Mixed | Unreleased Life | 142 | 155 | 174 | 192 | |
Not stated | Unreleased Life | * | * | 5 | 3 | |
Other ethnic group | Unreleased Life | 24 | 24 | 27 | 28 | |
Unrecorded | Unreleased Life | * | * | 11 | 4 | |
White | Unreleased Life | 742 | 777 | 796 | 814 | |
Female | Asian/Asian British | Unreleased Life | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Black/Black British | Unreleased Life | * | * | 3 | 3 | |
Mixed | Unreleased Life | * | * | * | * | |
Not Stated | Unreleased Life | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Other ethnic group | Unreleased Life | 0 | * | * | * | |
Unrecorded | Unreleased Life | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
White | Unreleased Life | 31 | 34 | 37 | 39 |
Table notes:
Tariff length is the time between date of sentencing and tariff expiry date, and does not take into account any time served on remand.
Offenders who are 25 years old or younger at sentencing includes everyone not yet 26 years old at sentencing.
Figures include offenders who received a Whole Life Order.
Disclosure control
An asterisk (*) has been used to suppress values of two or one. This is to prevent disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient.
Source: Prison NOMIS and Public Protection Unit Database
Data sources and quality
The figures in the above 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.
Asked by: Lord Garnier (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the average tariff length of a life sentence for murder was in 2024 and 2025 to date, in years and months.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.
Table 1: Mean Tariff Length for Offenders Who Committed Murder, by Year of Sentence
Year of Sentence | Mean Tariff (years) | Mean Tariff (months) |
2024 | 22 | 259 |
2025* | 22 | 260 |
Table notes:
Source: Public Protection Unit Database
Data sources and quality
The figures in the above 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.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls's oral contribution in response to the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth during the Oral Statement of 18 December 2025 on Violence against Women and Girls Strategy, if he will set out the list of invitees to the men and boys summit.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Our cross-government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy places prevention at its heart. Building a positive agenda for men – and acknowledging the challenges young men and boys face in today’s society – is a critical part of this work. To this end, we will host a Men and Boys Summit this year, which the Deputy Prime Minister and I are pleased to be leading on behalf of the Prime Minister. We will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls's oral contribution in response to the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth during the Oral Statement of 18 December 2025 on Violence against Women and Girls Strategy, if he will publish the terms of reference for the men and boys summit.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Our cross-government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy places prevention at its heart. Building a positive agenda for men – and acknowledging the challenges young men and boys face in today’s society – is a critical part of this work. To this end, we will host a Men and Boys Summit this year, which the Deputy Prime Minister and I are pleased to be leading on behalf of the Prime Minister. We will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls's oral contribution in response to the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth during the Oral Statement of 18 December 2025 on Violence against Women and Girls Strategy, when will the men and boys summit be held.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Our cross-government Violence Against Women and Girls strategy places prevention at its heart. Building a positive agenda for men – and acknowledging the challenges young men and boys face in today’s society – is a critical part of this work. To this end, we will host a Men and Boys Summit this year, which the Deputy Prime Minister and I are pleased to be leading on behalf of the Prime Minister. We will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of court backlogs on health outcomes for prisoners held on remand.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government inherited a justice system in crisis, with a record and rising open caseload of nearly 80,000 criminal cases waiting to be heard in the Crown Court and too many victims waiting years for justice. That is why the Government commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to conduct an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts. On 2 December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a major programme of court reform to tackle these unacceptable delays and restore confidence in the criminal justice system. As part of our ongoing efforts to improve timeliness and efficiency in our criminal courts, we also asked Sir Brian to review court operations and make recommendations designed to boost court efficiency in Part 2 of his review. We are awaiting that report in the New Year and will look to act on its recommendations.
We are committed to working with our health partners to ensure that people in prison including those on remand have access to an equivalent standard, range and quality of health care in prisons to that available in the wider community to support their health outcomes. This is reflected in the National Partnership Agreement on Health and Social Care in England. This includes access to a range of treatments and interventions within prison as set out in the national service specification for mental health care in prisons.
For prisoners with severe mental health needs, the Mental Health Act (2025) received Royal Assent in December and contains several flagship reforms to improve access to mental health care and treatment, including, but not limited to, provisions to:
Introduce a new statutory 28-day time limit for transfers from prison and other places of detention to hospital to reduce unnecessary delays experienced by prisoners who require mental health treatment.
Stop courts temporarily detaining people with severe mental illness in prison as a ‘place of safety’ whilst awaiting a hospital bed for treatment or assessment under the Mental Health Act; and
End the use of remand for own protection under the Bail Act where the court’s sole concern is the defendant’s mental health.
We will implement these reforms as soon as it is safe to do so.
The Sentencing Bill, currently being considered before parliament, introduces a package of amendments to the Bail Act (1976), which, alongside the presumption to suspend short sentences of 12 months or less, will help to address the unsustainable growth in the prison remand population.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals convicted of sexual offences have been convicted of (a) a further sexual offence and (b) other violent offences after release from custody in the UK in each year since 2020.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on convictions and sentencing information for sexual offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.
However, it is not possibly to identify whether the offender was a foreign national. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would incur disproportionate costs.