Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hunger strikes in prisons lasted for over 40 days in (a) 2021, (b) 2022, (c) 2023, (d) 2024 and 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
None of the requested data are centrally collated. They could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how long has each hunger strike lasted in prisons in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
None of the requested data are centrally collated. They could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were convicted of arson in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for a wide range of offences including arson in England and Wales within the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost to the public purse was of feasibility studies conducted by their Department for projects that did not proceed in the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is not centrally held in an accessible form.
Due to this any response could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of measures to support the victims of theft of a driving licence.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring support is available for victims, so that those affected by crime, including theft, can access the help they need throughout the justice process.
That is why, in total, the Ministry of Justice will be investing £550 million in victim support services over the next three years – the biggest investment in victim support services to date.
This includes annual grant funding to the 42 Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) areas across England and Wales, who commission local practical, emotional and therapeutic services based on an assessment of need in their area.
Within this envelope, we will be increasing funding for victim support services year on year, from 2026 to 2029, recognising the need to meet the rising cost pressures of delivery.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report on the Southport attack by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a new offence of planning a mass casualty attack.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government accepts and strongly supports the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s (IRTL) recommendation to consider creating a new offence to capture individuals intending to kill multiple people and planning for such attacks. As recognised by the IRTL, this is a complex area of law and will require working through difficult legal and ethical issues to avoid unintended consequences. We are considering carefully the best way to close the gap in the legislation.
Asked by: Zarah Sultana (Your Party - Coventry South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people participating in hunger strikes in prisons became hospitalised for reasons associated with the strike in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
None of the requested data are centrally collated. They could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the answer of 26 November 2025 to Question 92757, what steps he is taking to ensure sufficient capacity to meet the anticipated additional demand; and whether those improvements will be in place prior to implementation of the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
To prepare for the anticipated demands of the Renters’ Rights Act, we have launched a significant programme of work. This includes recruiting additional administrative staff, establishing a centralised operational hub, and updating our operational processes to improve efficiency. We are also ensuring the availability of suitable estates capacity for hearings and enhancing our technology systems to support the increased workload. We expect these measures to be in place in time for implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act.
We are maintaining investment in the annual recruitment of around 1,000 judges and tribunal members across all courts and tribunals, with specific recruitment for the judges and members needed for the Property Chamber. Further recruitment in 2026 is planned.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2024 to Question 14399 on Offenders: Electronic Tagging, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of alcohol monitoring tags in reducing the level of alcohol related reoffending.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Department keeps the use of alcohol monitoring under review and has commissioned a programme of evaluations to assess impact on compliance and reoffending. For community sentences, compliance with court‑imposed alcohol bans is high. Published statistics show a compliance rate with the ban of over 97% for days monitored, since introduction, as shown here: Electronic Monitoring MI Publication, June 2025 - GOV.UK.
For post‑custody use, we published the Alcohol Monitoring on Licence (AML) process and interim impact evaluation in October 2025, linked here: Alcohol monitoring on licence: process and interim impact evaluation - GOV.UK.
Enforcement decisions are recorded within individual probation case management records and are taken on a case‑by‑case basis by supervising practitioners. To collate this locally held information could only be done at a disproportionate cost. Non‑compliance can lead to proportionate enforcement ranging from further engagement with the person on probation through formal warnings and breach action, up to recall where risk or persistent non‑compliance warrants it.
We publish regular Alcohol Monitoring Statistics. The latest publication sets out statistics on AAMR orders and the use of AML orders from 31 July 2025 to 30 November 2025 and can be found here: Ad-Hoc Alcohol Monitoring Statistics Publication, Dec 2025 - GOV.UK.
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 alerts were triggered by alcohol monitoring tags in December 2024; and what proportion of those alerts resulted in enforcement action, including recall to prison and return to court.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Department keeps the use of alcohol monitoring under review and has commissioned a programme of evaluations to assess impact on compliance and reoffending. For community sentences, compliance with court‑imposed alcohol bans is high. Published statistics show a compliance rate with the ban of over 97% for days monitored, since introduction, as shown here: Electronic Monitoring MI Publication, June 2025 - GOV.UK.
For post‑custody use, we published the Alcohol Monitoring on Licence (AML) process and interim impact evaluation in October 2025, linked here: Alcohol monitoring on licence: process and interim impact evaluation - GOV.UK.
Enforcement decisions are recorded within individual probation case management records and are taken on a case‑by‑case basis by supervising practitioners. To collate this locally held information could only be done at a disproportionate cost. Non‑compliance can lead to proportionate enforcement ranging from further engagement with the person on probation through formal warnings and breach action, up to recall where risk or persistent non‑compliance warrants it.
We publish regular Alcohol Monitoring Statistics. The latest publication sets out statistics on AAMR orders and the use of AML orders from 31 July 2025 to 30 November 2025 and can be found here: Ad-Hoc Alcohol Monitoring Statistics Publication, Dec 2025 - GOV.UK.