Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Parental Orders were issued in 2025, 2024 and 2023.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on parental orders in our quarterly Family Court statistics bulletin: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of bail conditions in reducing reoffending and protecting the public in cases involving persons under the age of 18 accused of violent offences.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government is clear that when the courts are considering bail for children charged with violent offences, public protection should always be the foremost priority, alongside reducing the risk of offending. For children, there is the option of imposing Bail Intensive Support and Supervision which includes high levels of contact, monitoring, structured activity and in some cases electronic tags.
While evidence specifically on the effectiveness of different bail conditions on reducing offending or protection of the public is limited, there is evidence on the factors that reduce the chances of a child offending. The key principles of lowering the risk of offending include therapeutic rather than punitive responses, and family-based interventions that draw on community support and address wider needs, such as education and health. A strong and robust bail package is expected to address these key principles to ensure public safety.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what comparative assessment he has made of the level of support in prisons for parents on remand or serving custodial sentences with the potential impact on rehabilitation.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We know that supporting and maintaining positive family relationships, where safe and appropriate, is an important factor in reducing reoffending and desistance from crime, with recently published research finding that prisoners who received visits were 3 percentage points less likely to reoffend within one year of release (25% vs 28%). Prisons will assess the need for individual, tailored family support on a case-by-case basis, noting that this is not always appropriate for all prisoners or their families.
Family support is a central component of a rehabilitative prison environment and is recognised as critical to the wellbeing of individuals in custody, regardless of their legal status. To support this, prisons across England and Wales offer a range of services to maintain family relationships including social visits, family days and the award-winning charity led initiative Storybook Mums and Dads, enabling parents in prison to record bedtime stories for their children. Both remand and convicted prisoners can access the full range of family support services, which includes access to family support workers, parenting support, and signposting to advice and external agencies.
Support for maintaining family contact is consistent across remand and convicted prisoners, who can contact their family through visits, telephone and video calls, and letters. Under Prison Rules, remand prisoners are entitled to a greater number of visits than convicted prisoners which reflects the legal distinction between those awaiting a trial or sentencing, and those who are convicted. Additionally, remand prisoners can spend more money on phone credit or postage stamps, should they wish to send additional mail. This is a result of statutory entitlements, and beyond these distinctions, there is no difference in the family support offer between remand and convicted prisoners.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) what steps his Department has taken to implement the recommendations of Lord Farmer's 2017 review and (b) whether further steps are planned.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Lord Farmer’s 2017 review highlighted the importance of family and supportive relationships in rehabilitation and reducing re-offending. Since then, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has taken extensive action to put those recommendations into practice, with the majority now completed. All prisons are required to publish local family and ‘significant other’ strategies, to seek and respond to the views of families in supporting people in custody, including in relation to release planning, and to identify and support prisoners without family or relationship contact. These principles are now embedded within HMPPS Family Services and continue to inform practice across the prison estate.
HMPPS has also implemented recommendations on the positive role of prisoner-to-prisoner relationships, strengthening peer support and mentoring through existing roles such as peer mentors, Listeners, wing representatives and learning tutors. Work is under way to develop a common set of standards for peer support and mentoring, using an evidence-led approach to testing, evaluation and potential future scaling up, to improve quality, consistency and safeguards.
The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS continue to work with Lord Farmer and delivery partners to monitor and strengthen delivery through inspection and performance frameworks. Further work is planned to build on this foundation, particularly to strengthen family engagement and pro-social peer relationships as part of a wider rehabilitative culture informed by desistance principles and psychologically informed practice.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with representatives from prisons on making prison visits more suitable for children and families.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Ministry of Justice Ministers have frequent discussions with prison staff on all aspects of the prison experience. His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) encourages prisons to make the experience of those visiting prisoners the ‘best it can be’, and to seek feedback from visitors on how to improve services. Information on the quality of social visits, including feedback from stakeholders, is included in the HMPPS Families Performance Improvement Measure.
Supporting consistent contact between parents in prison and their children where it is safe and appropriate, helps to mitigate the harm arising from separation caused by imprisonment.
Making prison visits family‑friendly is an important element of maintaining family ties and supporting effective rehabilitation. Visiting a prison can be a daunting experience for anyone, particularly those already coping with the emotional impact of having a loved-one in custody. A welcoming visiting environment helps to reduce fear, anxiety and stigma, enabling families to feel safe and supported during what may be a stressful experience.
Family‑friendly visits allow relations to interact more naturally, supporting healthy attachment and emotional wellbeing. Simple measures such as clear information, trained staff, suitable facilities and access to play or activity areas can make a significant difference to the experience. These features help visits to feel more like a normal family interaction and allow parents in custody to maintain a meaningful role in their child’s life.
Prison video calling is already an established part of the prison communications offer. The provision of secure social video calls, as a supplement to letters, telephone calls and in‑person visits, supports the maintenance of family ties and reflects key recommendations made in Lord Farmer’s reviews, which highlighted the importance of strong family relationships in reducing the risk of re‑offending.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were released early in Lincolnshire in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
This Government inherited prisons days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.
Without the changes this Government made, courts would have had to halt trials and the police cancel arrests, undermining public safety and leading to a disastrous impact on public confidence in the criminal justice system.
We regularly publish data on release from prison, including on forms of early release – for example we publish SDS40 data alongside the quarterly Offender Management statistics: Standard Determinate Sentence (SDS40) release data - GOV.UK.
Whilst measures like the SDS40 change provided the intended medium-term relief to the system, this was only ever a temporary change as a bridge to a more sustainable solution. That is why the Sentencing Act has now been passed, to ensure we never run out of prison space again and to deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the list of training programmes used by civil servants in his Department since 2020.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with representatives from prisons on allowing prisoners to have virtual visits with their children through longer and high-quality video calls.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Ministry of Justice Ministers have frequent discussions with prison staff on all aspects of the prison experience. His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) encourages prisons to make the experience of those visiting prisoners the ‘best it can be’, and to seek feedback from visitors on how to improve services. Information on the quality of social visits, including feedback from stakeholders, is included in the HMPPS Families Performance Improvement Measure.
Supporting consistent contact between parents in prison and their children where it is safe and appropriate, helps to mitigate the harm arising from separation caused by imprisonment.
Making prison visits family‑friendly is an important element of maintaining family ties and supporting effective rehabilitation. Visiting a prison can be a daunting experience for anyone, particularly those already coping with the emotional impact of having a loved-one in custody. A welcoming visiting environment helps to reduce fear, anxiety and stigma, enabling families to feel safe and supported during what may be a stressful experience.
Family‑friendly visits allow relations to interact more naturally, supporting healthy attachment and emotional wellbeing. Simple measures such as clear information, trained staff, suitable facilities and access to play or activity areas can make a significant difference to the experience. These features help visits to feel more like a normal family interaction and allow parents in custody to maintain a meaningful role in their child’s life.
Prison video calling is already an established part of the prison communications offer. The provision of secure social video calls, as a supplement to letters, telephone calls and in‑person visits, supports the maintenance of family ties and reflects key recommendations made in Lord Farmer’s reviews, which highlighted the importance of strong family relationships in reducing the risk of re‑offending.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making support for parents in prisons a Key Performance Indicator.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Decisions on changes to prison key performance indicators, including whether to introduce new or more explicit measures focused on support for parents in prison, must balance the benefits of clearer accountability with the need to ensure performance frameworks remain proportionate, measurable and focused on outcomes.
Any proposed changes are considered alongside inspection evidence and operational priorities.
Families provision in prisons is currently monitored by the family ties performance measure. The Department will continue to consider how best to reflect the role of family and parental support in prison performance measures as we develop the prison performance framework.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to respond to the Ipsos MORI research project on the retributive benefit of prison before summer recess 2026.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Department is working to start an academic Peer Review of the Ipsos Mori Retribution survey ahead of publication to ensure it is analytically robust and the results are interpreted correctly. The process will begin in Summer this year.