Tag: Andy Slaughter

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many knives have been confiscated in prisons in each year since 2010.

Andrew Selous

Historic data on estimates of the number of knives confiscated in prisons is not collected in a form that can be assured to be of sufficient quality for publication. A new enhanced incident reporting system has recently been introduced which does collect this data and assured data will be available at the end of the year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer to the Question 21806 of 19 January 2016, on personal injury: compensation, whether the meeting on 8 December 2015 was the first meeting of Ministers with insurance industry representatives on reform of personal injury claims since May 2015.

Dominic Raab

On 8 December 2015, at a meeting with Ministers, representatives of leading insurers committed to pass on savings to consumers through lower premiums following the implementation of Government reforms. The Government will be monitoring the industry’s reaction to these reforms closely.

The meeting on 8 December 2015 was the first Ministerial meeting with insurers to discuss the reforms announced in the Autumn Statement on 25 November. Lord Faulks subsequently met representatives from the claimant lawyer sector at the end of January 2016. Officials had previously met with both insurers and claimant lawyer representatives to discuss the reforms.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many fires there have been in each prison and youth facility in each month since May 2010.

Andrew Selous

Information on the number of fires there have been in each prison and youth facility in each month since May 2010 is recorded in attached excel document PQ26250 Annex 1. The reporting of fire incidents has significantly improved, which has led to a greater number being reported in 2015.

The total number of fire incidents recorded in table 1 below refer to those in England and Wales recorded on the NOMS Incident Reporting System. They include accidental and deliberately set fires and those where the cause is unknown.

Total Number of Fires.

	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Jan	82	100	77	85	114	73	84	78	98	110	102
Feb	76	80	103	92	68	55	73	82	97	70	122
Mar	84	84	93	87	98	62	75	99	83	92	144
Apr	97	89	89	81	72	69	70	81	94	113	159
May	97	89	99	81	65	86	86	84	102	125	150
Jun	108	100	77	82	86	68	91	87	74	94	176
Jul	89	101	84	104	76	84	82	90	123	119	181
Aug	89	99	104	79	75	102	89	80	114	134	195
Sep	73	93	100	83	106	85	72	77	81	82	190
Oct	94	64	87	90	75	73	65	69	98	103	180
Nov	102	91	80	90	92	82	85	114	82	101	156
Dec	75	87	89	76	69	68	86	63	104	93	180
Total	1066	1077	942	1030	946	907	1111	1004	1150	1236	1935

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times (a) gold, (b) silver and (c) bronze command suites were opened in each prison in each of the last three years.

Andrew Selous

Violence in prisons has increased in recent years. The nature of offenders currently in custody and the widespread availability of new psychoactive substances have both contributed to making prisons less safe. There is no single, simple solution to the problems we face but we are making progress.

We have launched a two year Violence Reduction project to help us to gain a better understanding of the causes and characteristics of violence in prisons and to strengthen the handling of this. We are also trialing the use of body worn cameras in prisons, training sniffer dogs to detect new psychoactive substances and have made it an offence to smuggle new psychoactive substances into prison. However, ultimately the only way to reduce violence in our prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to more effectively reform and rehabilitate offenders, which we are determined to see through.

The safety of staff and prisoners is a priority. Gold Command is opened in order to deal with incidents as quickly and safely as possible. Not all incidents turn out to be serious, but Gold Command is opened as a precaution when incidents are regarded as potentially serious.

Tables 1, 2 and 3 show the number of times Gold Command has been opened in each of the past three years by prison.

The decision to open Silver Command is made at the local level. Data regarding Silver Command openings is not held centrally, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

There is no “Bronze Command suite” within NOMS incident response procedures.

Table 1: Number of times Gold Command Suite opened by prison in 2013

Prison	Number of Incidents
Aylesbury	2
Cardiff	1
Doncaster	2
Elmley	1
Everthorpe	2
Featherstone	1
Full Sutton	1
Garth	1
Gartree	1
Glen Parva	4
Haverigg	1
Hewell	2
High Down	2
Holme House	1
Hull	3
Isis	1
Lewes	1
Lincoln	2
Lindholme	3
Long Lartin	3
Maidstone	1
Moorland	2
Morton Hall	1
National – Industrial Action	1
Northumberland	1
Onley	1
Pentonville	1
Peterborough	1
Preston	1
Ranby	1
Risley	2
Rye Hill	1
Stafford	1
Stocken	3
Swaleside	1
Swinfen Hall	6
Warren Hill	1
Wayland	1
Wealstun	2
Wetherby	3
Wolds	1
Woodhill	1
Wormwood Scrubs	1
Wymott	1

Table 2: Number of times Gold Command Suite opened by prison in 2014

Prison	Number of Incidents
Altcourse	2
Aylesbury	1
Brinsford	1
Bristol	1
Bullingdon	3
Cardiff	1
Channings Wood	2
Chelmsford	1
Cookham Wood	1
Deerbolt	3
Doncaster	1
Elmley	1
Garth	1
Glen Parva	7
Harmondsworth	1
Haslar	1
Haverigg	3
Highpoint	1
Holme House	1
Humber	4
Leeds	1
Lincoln	1
Lindholme	3
Littlehey	1
Moorland	3
Morton Hall	1
National – Industrial Action	1
Northumberland	2
Norwich	1
Nottingham	1
Oakwood	1
Onley	1
Portland	1
Preston	2
Ranby	3
Rochester	3
Rye Hill	1
Stoke Heath	1
Swaleside	4
Swansea	1
Swinfen Hall	3
Wayland	3
Winchester	2

Table 3: Number of times Gold Command Suite opened by prison in 2015

Prison	Number of Incidents
Brinsford	1
Deerbolt	3
Doncaster	2
Dovegate	1
Durham	1
Featherstone	2
Garth	3
Gartree	1
Glen Parva	3
Haverigg	2
Highdown	2
Highpoint	2
Hull	1
Humber	3
Isis	3
Isle of Wight	1
Lancaster Farms	1
Leeds	2
Leicester	5
Lewes	1
Lincoln	2
Lindholme	3
Liverpool	2
Long Lartin	1
Lowdham Grange	1
Manchester	1
Morton Hall	1
Nottingham	2
Onley	1
Pentonville	2
Portland	1
Ranby	1
Rochester	1
Stocken	3
Swaleside	5
Swinfen Hall	2
The Mount	2
Wandsworth	5
Wayland	3
Werrington	1
Whatton	1
Whitemoor	1
Woodhill	1

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hostage incidents in which a (a) prison officer and (b) prisoner was taken hostage have taken place in each prison establishment since January 2010.

Andrew Selous

Violence in prisons has increased in recent years. These figures demonstrate that the Prime Minister and the Justice Secretary are right and out prisons badly need reform.

We are already trialling the use of body worn cameras in prisons, training sniffer dogs to detect new psychoactive substances and have made it an offence to smuggle new psychoactive substances into prison. However, ultimately the only way to reduce violence in our prisons is to give governors and those who work in prisons the tools necessary to more effectively rehabilitate offenders.

Hostage incidents are rare occurrences. The table attached provides details of hostage incidents, broken down by establishment and victim type.

Note: These figures have been drawn from the NOMS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although the figures are shown to the last case the figures may not be accurate to that level.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to respond to the findings of Amnesty International UK’s Annual Report, published on 24 February 2016.

Dominic Raab

I have no plans to do so. It is irresponsible for any campaign group to criticise our proposals before they’ve seen them. Amnesty have already been told our plans involve the UK remaining in the European Convention.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect on the UK of the introduction of citizenship-by-investment schemes by other EU member states; and what representations she has made on increasing transparency in that area.

James Brokenshire

We are monitoring such schemes and are in contact with other EU Member States where appropriate. Every country has the right to decide its own citizenship laws, but we would object if another Member State made changes that could lead to abuse of free movement rights.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) effect on cost and (b) security implications for (i) court staff and (ii) witnesses of using alternative civic buildings for video links or court hearings.

Mr Shailesh Vara

All proposals to use alternative venues for video links or courts hearings will be assessed to make sure they are cost effective and secure for court staff, users and the judiciary. Security risk assessments will be carried out at all venues and appropriate measures will be put in place, including the deployment of designated Court Security Officers at the venue where appropriate.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many former civil servants who worked on JSi projects have now left his Department.

Andrew Selous

I refer my the Rt Hon Member to my Written Ministerial Statement of 14 March:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2016-03-14/HCWS619/

I will update the House once the investigation is complete.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many structures funded in the Occupied West Bank through the EU Consortium have been demolished by the Israeli government since 1 January 2016.

Mr Desmond Swayne

None of the structures constructed under the EU multi-donor programme for social and public infrastructure in Area C have been demolished to date.