Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to repurpose prisons in the female estate to house male prisoners.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
On 1 September, we announced a package of criminal justice reforms intended to maintain sustainable prison capacity while protecting the public and victims. As part of that package, the Government set out its ambition to reduce the number of women in prison where it is safe and appropriate to do so. Repurposing a women’s prison requires reducing demand for places.
Women make up just a small proportion of those in custody – in June 2026, women comprised 4% of the prison population – yet they often have more complex needs than men. Many have experienced mental ill-health, substance misuse, trauma and abuse. Many women in prison are mothers and their imprisonment can have significant consequences for their children.
We are exploring options to reduce the number of pregnant women and mothers of young children in custody alongside taking forward a cross-government agenda of reform to address the drivers of women’s 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 and what proportion of civil servants in his Department were on permanent home working contracts in 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) does not offer permanent home-working contracts at the point of recruitment, with employees having a contractual base location at an MoJ office or property.
In limited circumstances, contractual homeworking arrangements may be agreed, including as a reasonable adjustment, and some employees may have transferred into the Department on protected terms which include homeworking. This is distinct from the MoJ’s hybrid working arrangements, under which employees may work both from home and in the workplace without their home being their contractual work location.
The MoJ remains committed to flexible working and the business benefits that it offers, including supporting the Civil Service priority of ensuring continued, effective and productive delivery of the work carried out by civil servants across the full range of services.
Whether an individual is employed on a permanent home-working contract is not reliably recorded on the Department's central HR system. The number and proportion of employees on such contracts in 2025 is therefore not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Timpson on 18 July 2025 (HL9111), when they expect HMP Millsike to be operating at full capacity.
Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
At present, around 80% of HMP Millsike’s capacity is in use. Occupancy will increase when operationally appropriate to do so. The pace of prisoner intake is kept under review by His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) and can be adjusted as necessary.
The occupation of new prisons is phased and managed carefully to ensure the prison remains safe, secure and stable as occupancy increases. This is explained in HMP Millsike’s published Mobilisation Strategy. It is recognised that opening a new prison is an inherently challenging period, as staff adapt to a new site and establish its culture, regime and processes. Staffing is one of a range of operational factors that need to be considered, together with safety and security, the stability of the prison, and the establishment of its regime and processes.
As with all privately operated prisons, HMPPS strictly monitors the performance of the prison throughout the life of the contract, including through its on-site contract management team.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 and other criminal law provisions relating to health and safety.
Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government keeps the effectiveness of the criminal law under review, including the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. The 2007 Act created a specific offence to ensure that organisations can be held criminally accountable where serious management failures leading to a gross breach of a duty of care result in death. The offence has been used to secure convictions and substantial fines where the evidential test has been met.
The Ministry of Justice has not undertaken a recent formal review of the 2007 Act but continues to monitor its operation through relevant criminal justice agencies and enforcement authorities.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the risks of holding 18 year-olds for longer in the youth estate.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
On 1 September, my Rt Hon Friend the Lord Chancellor announced in a statement on criminal justice reform that, to help relieve some of the adult prison capacity challenges, a decision had been taken to hold some 18-year-olds for longer in the youth estate, on a careful case-by-case basis. This is an interim arrangement, subject to regular review, which we will look to end as soon as possible. We have not taken this decision lightly: we judge it to be a necessary part of the response to the prison capacity crisis which this Government inherited.
Retaining some 18-year-olds in the youth estate, on a case-by-case basis, is a longstanding practice.
The interim policy decision announced will be subject to several key safeguards. The proportion of 18-year-olds in the youth custody population must never exceed 25 per cent. In addition to the assessment of individual young people and of site safety, existing safeguarding, behaviour-management and risk-assessment arrangements will continue to apply. These will monitor any concerns about risks posed by or to an individual young person. Where an unmanageable risk to other young people, or to the stability of the establishment, is identified, an earlier transition to the adult estate will be arranged.
As regards the longer term, the Youth Custody Transformation Plan, which is planned for publication in the coming months, will include consideration of how we best support young people transitioning from the youth estate to adult prison.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department (a) uses or (b) is taking steps to install rooftop solar panels on its premises.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice uses rooftop solar panels across a number of its premises and is taking steps to deploy additional panels where technically and financially feasible.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a breakdown of conviction data by nationality for the past five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes a range of FNO statistical breakdowns as part of its Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) which covers prisons and probation data Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.
Last year, we expanded the range of available data on FNOs to include FNO data by offence type and sentence status. At present we do not publish conviction data as part of our Official Statistics.
The Ministry of Justice keeps the contents of its Official Statistics under continuous review.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people convicted of (a) taking a motor vehicle without consent, (b) aggravated vehicle taking and (c) dangerous driving in each of the last five years were aged (i) under 18 and (ii) 18 to 24; and how many people in each category had one or more previous convictions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We have not made a specific assessment of the effectiveness of the youth justice system in reducing reoffending in relation to the requested offences. However, please refer to the tables attached which show the proven reoffending rates for children and young adults (18-24) convicted of these offences. To note that volumes are too low to reproduce reoffending rates for children convicted of dangerous driving offences.
The principal aim of the youth justice system is to protect the public by preventing offending by children. In the Youth Justice White Paper published earlier this year, the Government laid out a range of robust interventions to deliver on that aim, with a particular focus on early intervention and strengthening youth justice services. Youth justice services are empowered to design specific provision that works best for their local area. For example, Leicestershire Youth Justice Services’ deliver the Brake! programme, which is used for children involved in driving offences.
The number of children and 18-24 year olds convicted of the requested offences, and the number of people in each category with one or more convictions, can be found attached.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average proportion of sentence served was by Welsh prisoners, based on home address, in custody in 2025, by ethnic group.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Centrally collated prison releases data only allows for "average proportion of sentence" to be readily estimated for those released from determinate sentences and this calculation may also include time spent in the community on bail. Therefore, to provide an accurate response would incur disproportionate cost to the department.
With regards to the number of prison leavers, the requested information has been provided as an Excel file alongside this response.
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 prison leavers in 2025 had an origin address in Wales, by prison establishment of release.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Centrally collated prison releases data only allows for "average proportion of sentence" to be readily estimated for those released from determinate sentences and this calculation may also include time spent in the community on bail. Therefore, to provide an accurate response would incur disproportionate cost to the department.
With regards to the number of prison leavers, the requested information has been provided as an Excel file alongside this response.