Tag: Andy Slaughter

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the changes to personal injury law and procedure announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 on the prevalence of the practice of third party capture; and if he will make a statement.

Dominic Raab

The Government received and analysed data from numerous sources when formulating the announcement in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. We will continue to work with a wide range of stakeholders including other Government Departments, solicitors and insurers in taking forward the new reform package. The Government will consult on the detail of these measures in due course. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times G4S has been in breach of its contract at Medway STC since it was awarded that contract; for what reasons each such breach occurred; and what fines were incurred by G4S for each of these breaches.

Andrew Selous

Since the contract was awarded in 1997, there have been two instances of financial remedies on G4S’s contract at Medway STC, both for failure to comply with procedures. The financial penalties were for a total of £1221.87.707.40. We are examining whether the allegations made by Panorama would constitute a breach of contract.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many fines G4S has paid under any contract with his Department in each of the last five years; and for what reasons each such fine was imposed.

Andrew Selous

The Ministry of Justice holds a number of centrally and locally managed contracts with G4S and information on the total financial remedies imposed could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. However, the total for G4S run prisons, Young Offender’s Institutes (YOIs) and secure training centres (STC) were as follows:

As I stated in the answer to PQ 22664, there have been two incidents in the last five years in which financial remedies were applied at Medway STC. In both cases, G4S failed to comply with operating procedures. In the same time period, there was one incident for which financial remedies were applied at Rainsbrook STC, for failing to comply with operating procedures.

Financial remedies applied to private prisons, including HMP/YOI Parc since 2010 are set out in the attached table.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the five items most commonly recorded by the Incident Report System are; and how many of each such item were recorded in the last year for which figures are available.

Andrew Selous

The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners diagnosed with a mental health illness are being held with another prisoner in a cell designed for one person.

Andrew Selous

As the Secretary of State has said, the prison estate is overcrowded and out of date. That’s why we have announced that we will close down aging and ineffective prisons, replacing them with buildings fit for today’s demands, including better management of prisoners with mental health illnesses.

On arrival all prisoners have a health assessment that looks in particular at mental health, risk of self-harm and suicide, risk of harm to others and vulnerability or risk of harm from others. A cell sharing risk assessment is also undertaken to inform whether a prisoner can share a cell, which includes looking at the health assessment. All prisons have on-site primary health care teams who can provide mental health care, refer prisoners to talking therapies or refer them for a further psychiatric assessment for serious mental illness.

While the National Offender Management Service collects centrally the data on when two prisoners are held in a cell designed for one, it does not centrally record how many of these prisoners have an identified mental health concern.

This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in which prisons the eight apparent homicides referred to in the Safety in Custody Statistics, England and Wales: Deaths in prison custody to December 2015; Assaults and Self-harm to September 2015, published on 28 January 2016, took place.

Dominic Raab

The eight apparent homicides occurred at the following prisons: HMP Dartmoor, HMP Doncaster, HMP Long Lartin, HMP Nottingham, HMP Peterborough, HMP Ranby, HMP Swaleside, HMP Wandsworth.

The classification of these deaths remains provisional until confirmed at inquest.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effects of UK membership of the EU on policy areas in the remit of his Department.

Dominic Raab

The Prime Minister has made clear that the European Union needed to reform if it was to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of our EU membership that cause so much frustration in the UK, so we can get a better deal for our country and secure our future. We are confident that the right agreement can be reached.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents at height have taken place in each prison in each month since March 2014.

Andrew Selous

The vast majority of incidents are minor in nature and resolved quickly and professionally without injury, damage or disruption to the running of the prison. Each incident is investigated fully to ensure lessons are learnt and best practice in managing incidents is shared across NOMS.

Many incidents at height are relatively short in duration, lasting less than 15 minutes, and take place on netting or over railings. Hostage incidents are relatively rare and in many cases of hostage taking collusion between the perpetrator and victim is suspected. We do not tolerate violence or disorder in our prisons. Prisoners who take part in violent incidents can be referred to the police for prosecution or receive additional time on their sentences following internal adjudication.

The tables attached provide numbers of incidents at height and hostage incidents in each month between March 2014 and December 2015 and broken down by establishment.

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 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 26908, what steps he is taking to improve the recording of knife finds in prisons to ensure that the data is easy to use and analyse.

Andrew Selous

Finds of certain prohibited items in prisons, including knives, are recorded on the NOMS Incident Reporting System (IRS).

Until October 2015, any weapon in prison would be recorded under a miscellaneous incident type, and therefore would not provide consistent and complete information on weapon finds. In October 2015 we introduced a new incident type ‘Find’ on IRS, including a new category for ‘Weapons’, which means that separate data on weapons is now recorded.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many Legionnaires’ disease incidents have been reported in each prison since May 2010.

Ben Gummer

Due to small numbers involved and risk of deductive disclosure, the number of cases of Legionella pneumonia in people in prisons in England cannot be provided.