Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which Commonwealth countries continue to use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as their final court of appeal.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Commonwealth countries which continue to use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) as their final court of appeal are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Brunei, Cook Islands and Niue, Grenada, Jamaica, Kiribati, Mauritius, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tuvalu.
The Department has not had discussions with Commonwealth partners on future arrangements for JCPC jurisdiction. The JCPC relies on the continuing consent of independent countries for its jurisdiction in those countries. These independent states, which have a historical connection with the United Kingdom, are free to make a pragmatic judgement on whether they derive benefit from what the JCPC has to offer.
The JCPC is funded from the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) budget. The Lord Chancellor has an obligation under section 50 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 to ensure the UKSC is provided with the resources appropriate to carry on its business, but under the Department’s concordat with the UKSC, the court’s chief executive, as accounting officer, negotiates with HM Treasury directly. The court’s bid for funding is shared with the Lord Chancellor, who may comment on it without altering it. The Lord Chancellor then submits it to HM Treasury for consideration.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if her Department will establish an independent body to review and make recommendations on barristers’ fees for publicly funded criminal work.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government recognises that legal aid is a vital part of the justice system. It enables those individuals who need it most to have access to publicly funded legal assistance, in order to uphold their legal rights.
This Government has made a significant investment towards criminal legal aid, as part of which we continue to consider the amount and nature of that funding. In December 2024, we announced that criminal legal aid solicitors will receive up to £92 million more a year, subject to consultation, to help support the sustainability of the criminal legal aid sector. The consultation has now closed, and we will publish the response in due course. This is in addition to our response to the Crime Lower consultation, confirming an uplift to the lowest police station fees, introducing a new Youth Court fee scheme, and paying for travel in certain circumstances. Together, these changes provided a £24 million investment for criminal legal aid providers. Since the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR), funding for defence advocates has increased by 17%.
The Ministry of Justice engages closely with representatives from the legal profession through the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board (CLAAB). Its purpose is to provide independent advice on the operation and structure of the existing and future criminal legal aid schemes, and to assess how these schemes can support the overall sustainability, diversity, and efficiency of the system.
Asked by: Allison Gardner (Labour - Stoke-on-Trent South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking as part of its role within the Interministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to reduce and prevent homelessness.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and other Departments through the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to develop a new long-term cross-government strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.
We are continuing to expand our Community Accommodation Service 3 (CAS3) to support more prison leavers at risk of homelessness each year. Our CAS3 service supports prison leavers who are subject to probation supervision, by offering up to 12 weeks of basic transitionary accommodation to provide a stable base on release. This programme has been gradually rolled out nationwide since July 2021 and since then has supported over 23,100 prison leavers who would otherwise have been homeless. We have also employed 50 Strategic Housing Specialists to support prisons in their response to reducing homelessness by working in partnership with probation and Local Authorities to identify suitable accommodation for those released to the area, regardless of the prison they are released from.
We know that a cross-agency and cross-government approach is required to address the challenge of securing long-term accommodation. That is why we are working closely with MHCLG, health partners and other departments at a national and local level, to address barriers to accommodation for prison leavers, drawing on learning from partnership efforts – including the Changing Futures programme – to take a holistic, trauma-informed approach to supporting individuals with multiple unmet needs.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will conduct a review of the quality of rehabilitation of prisoners released from an open prison, in comparison with prisoners released from other penal settings.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Prisons of different categories shape their rehabilitation offer to meet the needs of the prisoner cohorts they accommodate.
In open prisons, the intention is for carefully risk-assessed prisoners to participate in activities in the community under Release on Temporary Licence. Suitable, risk assessed prisoners may be allowed out during the day to work, attend college, attend an interview or re-establish links with their family. This helps them develop responsibility and gain valuable skills.
Before moving to the open estate, prisoners will have spent time in prisons of other categories, so it is not straightforward to compare the quality of rehabilitation and attribute outcomes (for example education achievement, employment after release or reoffending rates) to the services in any one prison.
Asked by: Brian Mathew (Liberal Democrat - Melksham and Devizes)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to support (a) prison and (b) probation staff.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
By the nature of their roles, HMPPS staff can come into contact with some of the most challenging and dangerous people in our society. We want to ensure all staff, whether they are based in prisons or probation, feel proud to work for HMPPS and feel supported to carry out their challenging roles.
By the end of September, mandatory Protective Body Armour will be rolled out for use in Close Supervision Centres, Separation Centres, and Segregation Units in the Long-Term High Security Estate. These units hold some of the most dangerous and challenging prisoners. We are trialling the use of Conductive Energy Devices, known as “tasers”, by specialist staff to assist them in dealing with the most serious incidents in adult male prisons
Within prisons, the Enable Programme aims to transform prisons over the medium term, through a series of workforce and regime changes that will change how HMPPS trains, develops, leads and supports prison staff to ensure that they feel safe, supported, valued and confident in their skills and their ability to make a difference.
We continue to invest in probation, and plan to onboard 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already onboarded last year. We are committed to ensuring that workloads for probation staff are sustainable and ensure protection of the public. That is why we have commissioned the ‘Our Future Probation Service’ Programme to deploy new technologies, reform processes, and ensure prioritisation of probation staff time.
Within HMPPS, we provide extensive mental health support, including a 24-hour helpline, confidential counselling, and online wellbeing services. Our Trauma Risk Management practitioners and Care Teams provide further support following any incidents while on duty. The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offers confidential 24/7 telephone helpline for counselling and provides a range of wellbeing and health promotion workshops. Critical incident support is available to staff onsite within two hours of the incident taking place. EAP also delivers reflective sessions which are a proactive mental ill health preventative intervention. The sessions focus on the impact of traumatic events at work, helping employees to develop coping strategies and preventing an adverse impact on their professional and private life.
A new well-being support model has been established across HMPPS, with staff support and wellbeing leads for both prison and probation. Their role includes promoting and coordinating wellbeing services, reviewing Peer Support Services, and liaising with HR and other key stakeholders. Area wellbeing plans are in place, concentrating on workplace wellbeing interventions. HMPPS is retendering Occupational Health (OH) and EAP contracts, prompting a full review of staff support services. There is current provision of comprehensive OH and EAP services to proactively and reactively address the impact of work on health.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has had discussions with Commonwealth partners on future arrangements for appellate jurisdiction currently exercised by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Commonwealth countries which continue to use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) as their final court of appeal are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Brunei, Cook Islands and Niue, Grenada, Jamaica, Kiribati, Mauritius, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tuvalu.
The Department has not had discussions with Commonwealth partners on future arrangements for JCPC jurisdiction. The JCPC relies on the continuing consent of independent countries for its jurisdiction in those countries. These independent states, which have a historical connection with the United Kingdom, are free to make a pragmatic judgement on whether they derive benefit from what the JCPC has to offer.
The JCPC is funded from the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) budget. The Lord Chancellor has an obligation under section 50 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 to ensure the UKSC is provided with the resources appropriate to carry on its business, but under the Department’s concordat with the UKSC, the court’s chief executive, as accounting officer, negotiates with HM Treasury directly. The court’s bid for funding is shared with the Lord Chancellor, who may comment on it without altering it. The Lord Chancellor then submits it to HM Treasury for consideration.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Privy Council remains adequately resourced to deal with cases from Commonwealth jurisdictions in a timely manner.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Commonwealth countries which continue to use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) as their final court of appeal are Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Brunei, Cook Islands and Niue, Grenada, Jamaica, Kiribati, Mauritius, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Tuvalu.
The Department has not had discussions with Commonwealth partners on future arrangements for JCPC jurisdiction. The JCPC relies on the continuing consent of independent countries for its jurisdiction in those countries. These independent states, which have a historical connection with the United Kingdom, are free to make a pragmatic judgement on whether they derive benefit from what the JCPC has to offer.
The JCPC is funded from the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) budget. The Lord Chancellor has an obligation under section 50 of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 to ensure the UKSC is provided with the resources appropriate to carry on its business, but under the Department’s concordat with the UKSC, the court’s chief executive, as accounting officer, negotiates with HM Treasury directly. The court’s bid for funding is shared with the Lord Chancellor, who may comment on it without altering it. The Lord Chancellor then submits it to HM Treasury for consideration.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to help tackle sexual abuse in prisons.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) takes sexual harm in prisons very seriously. This year we have created specialist roles to address sexual harm across HMPPS, and we are developing a system-wide approach to prevent all forms of sexual harm in prisons as we implement Jennifer Rademaker’s review of HMPPS Professional Standards.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will require the mapping platform what3words to limit access to the prison estate.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
To protect the public, prisons must hold prisoners securely to prevent further crime, maintain order and provide an environment conducive to reform.
The Department is committed to taking every possible measure to strengthen prison security.
Whilst we cannot share our full range of countermeasures, our approach is continually evolving, and includes working closely across Government, with law enforcement, and also the private sector to identify and mitigate emerging threats. This includes mitigating any threats from geocoding services.
For example, in this 2025-26 financial year we are investing over £40 million in physical security across 34 prisons. This includes circa £10 million on anti-drone measures such as secure windows and robust netting at 15 prisons.
Asked by: Amanda Martin (Labour - Portsmouth North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June to Question 57910 on Legal Aid Scheme, how much the Legal Aid Agency paid in fees to Duncan Lewis LLP in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24, and (d) 2024-25 related to immigration and asylum cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information can be found in the table below. Information filterable by financial year, legal aid provider, and type of legal aid can be viewed on the Provider explorer dashboard of the Legal aid provider completions and starts statistics data visualisation tool.
Financial Year | Immigration and Asylum Closed Case Expenditure – Duncan Lewis |
2021-2022 | £8,201,255 |
2022-2023 | £7,980,147 |
2023-2024 | £8,108,969 |
2024-2025 | £6,052,515 |
Duncan Lewis is the largest Legal Aid provider in the UK, currently operating across 29 offices.
Legal aid is only available in respect of immigration cases which are within the scope of legal aid as set out under Schedule 1, Part 1 of the Legal Aid and Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 and is subject to both financial eligibility and merits tests.