Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people with a home address in Wales prior to entering custody were held in prison on remand in England and Wales in (a) March, (b) June, (c) September, and (d) December of 2025, by establishment.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information has been provided as an Excel file alongside this response.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for Child Arrangements Order proceedings in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice is committed to improving timeliness in child arrangement proceedings, and the Family Justice Board regularly monitors timeliness data against performance targets it has set both regionally and nationally.
The roll out of Child Focused Courts represents a significant reform to family private law. Families benefit from a streamlined, problem-solving approach which brings forward a holistic assessment of needs and risks and enables the court to make safe decisions without delay.
Data from the 10 areas already operating the model shows cases are being resolved up to twice as fast as the national average, and outstanding cases have fallen by over 50%. Although the model is not yet operational in Surrey, the Government recently announced the national rollout of Child Focused Courts across England and Wales by March 2029. As part of a phased approach to rollout, we will work to ensure all areas are preparing for implementation of the model.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2026 to Question 21974, have there been any instances where an uncle/niece or aunt/nephew marriage which falls within the prohibited degrees of relationship under the Marriage Act 1949 have been recognised.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not collect data on the recognition of particular types of marriage.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 20 July 2026 to Question 16871, how many further such cases involving assaults against emergency workers have been heard and dealt with since 29 June 2026; what the outcome was in each of those cases; and what the outcome was in each of the 64 cases referred to in the Answer as having previously been dealt with.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Between 29 June and 11 September 2026, 118 trial cases involving offences under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 were listed for hearing and 68 have been dealt with.
Of these 67 cases, the outcomes were as follows:
17 cases - defendants pleaded guilty
15 cases - prosecution offered no evidence
8 cases – defendants acquitted after trial
13 cases - defendants convicted after trial
15 cases - defendants given bind overs.
In this period, 40 cases were also sentenced of which 24 were effective.
The outcome of the 64 cases between 6 April and 29 June 2026 were as follows.
19 cases - defendants pleaded guilty
15 cases - prosecution offered no evidence
17 cases - defendants acquitted after trial
6 cases - defendants convicted after trial
7 cases - defendants given bind overs.
Those where prosecution offered no evidence or defendants were acquitted after trial did not proceed to another hearing.
It should be noted that the decision to list a case is taken by the independent judiciary. This data has been manually collated from locally held operational records and is unpublished management information. It is not subject to the same level of quality assurance as official published statistics. Figures are subject to change as case records are updated or amended.
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 8 June 2026, to Question 6099, on Foreign Relations, if he will list each Non-Legally Binding Instrument that has been signed by the department and it's Arms Length Bodies since July 2024 other than those subject to the sensitive diplomatic, security or defence interest provisions.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Since July 2024, the Ministry of Justice (including its Arm’s Length Bodies) has agreed the following international, non-legally binding instruments that are not subject to sensitive diplomatic, security or defence interest provisions:
Signed on 14 November 2024: Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Poland on cooperation in criminal justice matters. Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/memorandum-of-understanding-between-the-uk-and-poland-on-cooperation-in-criminal-justice-matters
Signed on 8 May 2025: Memorandum of Cooperation between the UK and Ukraine on supporting Ukraine’s justice sector reforms and strengthening the rule of law. Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-pledges-support-to-strengthen-ukraines-justice-system
Adopted on 28 May 2025: The European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ) recommendations CM/Rec(2025)5 on the protection of the rights and best interests of the child in care proceedings, and CM/Rec(2025)4 on the protection of the rights and best interests of the child in parental separation proceedings. Link: https://www.coe.int/en/web/cdcj/-/adoption-of-two-committee-of-ministers-recommendations-on-the-rights-and-best-interests-of-the-child-in-parental-separation-and-care-proceedings
Adopted on 4 March 2026: The Council of Europe’s recommendation CM/Rec(2026)2 on ensuring accountability for technology-facilitated violence against women and girls. Link: https://search.coe.int/cm?i=09125948802acd83
Signed on 8 June 2026: Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Latvia on justice cooperation. Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/memorandum-of-understanding-between-the-uk-and-latvia-on-justice-cooperation
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Ministry of Justice’s Safety in custody: quarterly update to December 2025, how many prisoners who self-harmed in the 12 months to December 2025 were from Wales (based on home address prior to entering custody).
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of prisoners from Wales (identified on the basis indicated) who self-harmed in 2025 is 848.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether probabilistic record-linkage tools used by the Department are used to link records relating to individuals across departmental boundaries; and what assessment he has made of the potential implications for individuals of being automatically included within, or excluded from, such cross-departmental linked identities.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice mostly uses probabilistic record-linkage tools to link internal administrative datasets (such as court, prison and probation data), while most linking across departmental boundaries uses deterministic linking. However, there are a small number of projects that use probabilistic matching across departmental boundaries for analytical and research purposes, such as:
Crown Prosecution Service data has recently been linked probabilistically to prisons and probation data, as part of work to join up data across the criminal justice system to improve understanding of the whole end-to-end system.
Prisoner and family relationship data was linked with HMRC Child Benefit records to estimate the number of children affected by parental imprisonment.
The results of this linking are used for analytical and research purposes, informing policymakers with better quality evidence rather than informing decisions at an individual level.
All data-linking activity is subject to the Ministry of Justice's established governance arrangements, including completion of a Data Protection Impact Assessment where required and engagement with the Ministry of Justice AI & Data Science Ethics Framework. These processes consider a wider range of ethical, legal and data protection issues including the potential implications for individuals of being included within, or excluded from, linked datasets.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether probabilistic record linkage tools, used by the Department or its agencies automatically link records relating to individuals where a predefined confidence threshold is met; and what human review is undertaken before such linked records are used for operational purposes.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice uses Splink, a probabilistic record linkage tool created in the Department, across a variety of services and analytical applications.
Where the match score exceeds a certain threshold, records are typically linked automatically, without human review. The score threshold varies according to use case and is set following assessment of accuracy required for the intended purpose, including where linked records may support operational processes.
Before a linking model is deployed, human review is undertaken on a sample of recorded pairs to assess linkage accuracy inform selection of an appropriate confidence threshold. Linkage performance is subsequently monitored, and threshold and matching algorithms are adjusted where necessary in response to identified issues or changes in data quality.
In addition, record linkage projects are subjected to appropriate governance and ethical overview, including through the Ministry of Justice AI and Data Science Ethics Framework.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the minimum service expectation for newly appointed magistrates on trends in the level of applications from people aged over 70.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has not made a specific assessment of the impact of the minimum service expectation on applications from people aged over 70. The expectation that newly appointed magistrates are able to serve for at least five years reflects the significant investment in recruitment, training and mentoring, and supports effective workforce planning. Candidates are encouraged to apply before their 70th birthday so that they can serve until the mandatory retirement age of 75, which was increased from 70 in 2022.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has assessed the potential merits of allowing magistrates to serve beyond the mandatory retirement age, subject to an assessment of their fitness and suitability to serve.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The mandatory retirement age applies to judicial office holders, including magistrates, and was increased from 70 to 75 in March 2022. The Government has no current plans to allow magistrates to serve beyond the mandatory retirement age. A consistent retirement age across the judiciary supports judicial independence and public confidence by avoiding the need for individual assessments of the health, fitness or suitability of judicial office holders.