Written questions by Khan.

When his Department's amendment of Section 288(2) of the Sentencing Code will take effect.

The Sentencing Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 22 January 2026. This measure commences automatically 2 months after Royal Assent, on 22 March 2026.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure the recruitment and retention of sufficient numbers of interpreters with a Level 6 Diploma in Public Service Interpreting by October 2026.

The Ministry of Justice is committed to maintaining both the quality and capacity of the future supply chain of qualified court interpreters.The Department and its suppliers regularly review fulfilment data to inform and adapt recruitment strategies, and our suppliers ensure that there are, and will be, sufficient interpreters with the required qualifications to meet our demand. The new contracts will improve this further by including steps to support interpreters in attaining Level 6 Diploma in Public Service Interpreting, through expanding the Trainee Scheme managed by the quality and assurance provider and providing more support for qualification costs.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of conducting a review of language professionals’ (a) minimum pay rates, (b) cancellation fees and (c) working conditions on the long-term (i) procurement and (ii) retention of public service interpreters.

The Ministry of Justice has undertaken a review of interpreter remuneration and conditions as part of the current procurement exercise for the interpreting service. This included a Delivery Model Assessment and extensive market engagement. The House of Lords Public Services Committee (PSC) also conducted an inquiry into the interpreting service in courts and published their subsequent report in March 2025.The Ministry of Justice has drawn on the valuable learning and insights from these reviews which informed the Department’s response to the House of Lords PSC report. The response, which covers the topics raised in more detail, can be accessed via this link: committees.parliament.uk/publications/48172/documents/252233/default/.

Whether her Department has considered the potential merits of introducing an independent regulator to oversee the commercial agencies it appoints for the provision of interpreting and translation services.

The Ministry of Justice does not require the introduction of an independent regulator due to the existing, robust assurance procedures in place. All interpreters under the Ministry of Justice contracts are subject to a quality assurance regime, which is independent of the suppliers that provide our interpreters. The Department has a dedicated Commercial and Contract Management team that oversees the quality assurance provider and the suppliers of interpreters. Their work includes conducting audits to ensure that data is reliable and reviewing quality and complaints data to ensure that the service is delivering for the taxpayer. Performance data for the language interpreter and translation services is published on the GOV.UK website.

Whether her Department has set a deadline for introducing a comprehensive remuneration and conditions framework set for implementation from October 2026 for public service interpreters.

The Ministry of Justice has provided a comprehensive response to the Public Services Committee inquiry and report into interpreter and translation services in the courts, published in June 2025, which covers this topic. The Ministry of Justice is procuring new interpreter contracts to commence in October 2026, which include improvements to the service, interpreter remuneration, and conditions. The Department considered mandating payment rates for interpreters during market engagement but concluded that suppliers (as experts in the market) are best placed to set payment rates. The Ministry of Justice’s role, as the commissioning body, is to ensure that these rates are fair and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. The Ministry of Justice has already taken steps to improve interpreter remuneration, such as increasing the minimum face to face booking duration to two hours in October 2024, which has led to improved contract fulfilment rates and a reduction in off contract requests. From October 2026, the new contracts will introduce improvements to interpreter remuneration and conditions. This includes:Strengthening safeguarding provisions to support interpreter wellbeingChanging the cancellation cut-off time meaning more cancellations will fall into the ‘short notice’ category and attract a fee payable to interpretersMaintaining the two-hour minimum booking duration

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the proposals in Law Commission’s report entitled Modernising Wills Law, published on 15 May 2025.

The Government has welcomed the Law Commission’s comprehensive report on the law of making a will and will be giving the report careful consideration.This is the first major review of the law on making wills since the Wills Act 1837, and the reforms proposed by the Law Commission are significant and wide ranging. They deserve detailed consideration. The Government recognises that the current law is outdated, and we must embrace change, but the guiding principle in doing so will be to ensure that reform does not compromise existing freedoms or protecting the elderly and vulnerable in society from undue influence.The Government will make further announcements in due course, once it has given the report the detailed consideration it deserves.

How many and what proportion staff in (a) prisons and (b) probation services have undertaken suicide prevention training.

I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 10 April 2025 to Question 44186.

How many people (a) on probation and (b) engaging with probation services have died since 2010; and how many of these deaths cited suicide as the official cause of death.

The number of people who died while under probation supervision in the community is published annually in Table 1 of the ‘Deaths of offenders in the community’ statistical bulletin. The latest release, which includes data from April 2010 up to March 2024, is available at the following link: Deaths of offenders in the community, annual update to March 2024 - GOV.UK.Each death is categorised based on its apparent cause, as reported by the probation provider to HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). It is important to note that this classification system provides a provisional categorisation for administrative and statistical purposes and has not been independently verified. The official cause of death is determined by the coroner. Consequently, while the apparent cause of death in this bulletin reflects the classification made at the time of reporting, it may not reflect the official cause of death as determined by the coroner.The category of ‘suicide’ is not used in the published statistics because it is not always clear whether a self-inflicted death is intentional or not. Instead, the broader category of ‘self-inflicted’ deaths is used. In years prior to April 2022, this category includes all self-inflicted deaths, irrespective of intent (intentional, unintentional, and undetermined intent). From April 2022, it includes only intentional self-inflicted deaths and deaths where intent is undetermined.The number of people engaging with probation services that have died since 2010 could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.

Whether his Department is providing suicide prevention training to (a) all and (b) newly recruited (i) prison and (ii) probation staff.

All new members of prison staff with prisoner contact receive training on suicide and self-harm prevention, and all staff who undertake key roles relating to risk assessment and case management also receive specific training relating to those roles.  An e-learning module has recently been made available for all staff to access on postvention support following a self-inflicted death in custody.There are two suicide prevention learning packages for probation staff: a Zero Suicide Alliance package for all staff, and a package aimed at new entrant Professional Qualification in Probation and Probation Service Officers which was developed internally as part of a broader introduction to mental health.

How many and what proportion of (a) prison and (b) probation staff have undertaken suicide prevention training.

All new prison officers receive training in suicide and self-harm prevention as part of their seven-week Foundation training course.For existing prison staff, there is a dedicated training module on suicide and self-harm. The training provides an understanding as to the context of self-harm and suicide within prisons, as well as the purpose and implementation of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process which is used to support prisoners identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm.Responsibility for delivering this training sits locally with prisons, therefore it is not possible to accurately assess the overall numbers who have received this training, due to local variations in how training is recorded.There are two suicide prevention learning packages for Probation Staff as part of the current core national offer. One is a Zero Suicide Alliance package for all staff. The other is a package aimed at new entrant learners undertaking Professional Qualification in Probation (PQiP) and new Probation Service Officers which was developed internally as part of a broader Introduction to Mental Health.The Introduction to Mental Health learning is designated as required for those undertaking the Professional Qualification in Probation (PQiP) and new Probation Service Officers (PSOs) in sentence management, both in custody and the community and is also accessed by established staff. The product contains knowledge modules around suicide and self-harm awareness.The core national offer referenced is a comprehensive learning package which was recently introduced. Staff who were in post prior to this would have completed other core learning programmes.It is important to note that whilst we collate completion figures for the current core learning, this does not represent the totality of suicide and self-harm prevention learning received by staff.This is due to regionally organised activities and previous learning opportunities where data is not nationally held.

Whether her Department consulted on the contents the suicide prevention training provided to prison and probation staff.

All new members of prison staff with prisoner contact receive training on suicide and self-harm prevention, and all staff who undertake key roles relating to risk assessment and case management also receive specific training relating to those roles. An e-learning module has also recently been made available for all staff to access on postvention support following a self-inflicted death in custody. These products have been developed by the HM Prison and Probation Service learning design team in conjunction with policy leads and subject matter experts. They include material developed in partnership with Samaritans, and consultation on elements of the content has taken place with healthcare and other partners and the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody.There are two suicide prevention learning packages for probation staff: a Zero Suicide Alliance (ZSA) package for all staff, and a package aimed at new entrant Professional Qualification in Probation (PQiP) and Probation Service Officers (PSOs) which was developed internally as part of a broader introduction to mental health. The former was developed externally by the ZSA (a suicide awareness and prevention initiative funded via Mersey Cares NHS Charity) in conjunction with HMPPS subject matter experts, and the latter builds upon this and tailors it to the needs of new entrants.

If she will publish the contents of the suicide prevention training provided to (a) prison and (b) probation staff.

It is not appropriate to make the training publicly available as the content includes lived experience examples for which confidentiality must be maintained, and there is a need for HMPPS to retain oversight of dissemination, delivery and appropriate use of the products.

What steps she is taking to ensure that (a) people and (b) charities providing support to people that (i) have self-harmed and (ii) are considering self-harming are not criminalised; and what guidance she provides to police forces.

Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023 gave partial effect to a Law Commission recommendation to create an offence of encouraging or assisting self-harm. The proposed new offence of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm intends to replace (in so far as it extends to England and Wales and Northern Ireland) that offence with a broader offence that can be committed by any means of communication, and in any other way (including, for example, direct assistance through the provision of bladed articles with which to self-harm). The person must have intent to encourage or assist the other person to seriously self-harm.As with the current offence in the Online Safety Act, sharing experiences of self-harm or simply discussing the issue (including glorifying or glamourising self-harm), without an intention that another should seriously self-harm, will not be a criminal offence. We recognise the concerns of those offering support services that capturing such behaviour would potentially risk criminalising vulnerable people who merely seek to share their experiences of self-harm with no intention of encouraging others to self-harm.The offence in the Online Safety Act comes from a Law Commission recommendation following a wide-ranging consultation and we will work with criminal justice agencies and others with an interest to update existing guidance and training to reflect the proposed expansion of the offence to include direct assistance to self-harm.

What performance monitoring is in place to monitor how many calls are unanswered in County Courts when individuals are trying to book a public counter appointment.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does have management information that includes data on telephony performance, such as volumes of answered and unanswered calls. This information does not specifically detail metrics related to unanswered calls for counter appointment bookings at County Courts.However, centralising calls into our national contact centre has provided improved visibility into true call demand and the volume of unanswered calls. By combining this with post call data and speech analysis from answered calls, we can identify trends and make informed assumptions about the key drivers behind unanswered calls.Individual County Courts may have their own procedures for managing appointment bookings. For instance, some courts require appointments to be made via specific phone numbers or email addresses. For example, Birmingham Civil & Family Justice Centre schedules counter appointments through a dedicated phone line our centralised telephony team would sign post our customers to.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of appointment-only counter service at County Courts on the accessibility of the court system.

Appointment-only counters have been in operation within HMCTS since 2012. Equality Impact Assessments were undertaken in line with ‘the framework for the Provision of Front Office Service in the County Courts (2008)’ which details the minimum standards for counter provision. The framework allows for the introduction of various levels of counter provision to meet local needs at different county courts whilst ensuring minimum standards are maintained along with adequate provision for urgent court business.