Written questions by Goldsborough.

If she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a target for the number of offenders on the secure estate who have employment roles.

We know that finding employment after release reduces the chance of reoffending significantly, by up to nine percentage points. Undertaking work in custody provides offenders with opportunity to develop key skills that will increase their chance of gaining employment on release and build links with real employers, reducing their risk of reoffending. The Government has committed to break the cycle of reoffending by improving offenders’ access to purposeful activity and to better support prisons to link up with employers and the voluntary sector to get more people with convictions into work. Whilst we do set targets for employment post-release, there are currently no plans to set targets for employment in prisons. However, HMPPS have introduced the National Regime Model, creating a national infrastructure for planning, reviewing and measuring purposeful activity for the first time. Every prison must now deliver a minimum of 60 minutes time in open air per day, 120 minutes time out of cell per day, and one quality key work session per month, and must also set out and be accountable to HMPPS on how they are improving their regime offer year on year.

How many (a) offender-on-offender and (b) offender-on-staff assaults have taken place on the secure estate in each of the last 10 financial years.

The number of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and assaults on staff for the financial year are shown in the summary tables of the Safety in Custody publication to March 2024: Safety in custody: quarterly update to March 2024 - GOV.UK Specifically, table 4 in the summary tables for this release gives these figures.Please note that:Figures from April 2018 onwards exclude incidents occurring within the youth estate, so figures for 2018 are not comparable with the years before or after, due to youth estate incidents being included in part of the year, from January to April 2018. The youth estate includes incidents occurring within Cookham Wood, Werrington and Wetherby, as well as the youth wing at Feltham and Parc. Prior to April 2018 these figures were collected via manual returns, so it is not possible to split out all youth estate incidents up to March 2018. Figures for incidents occurring within the youth estate are published within the ‘Safety in the children and young people secure estate’ statistics bulletin via the following link - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/safety-in-the-youth-secure-estate-bulletin.Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults are a subset of all assault incidents.Assaults on staff are a subset of all assault incidents. Some assault incidents may be recorded as both a prisoner-on-prisoner assault and an assault on staff, so the sum of the two categories may exceed the total number of assaults.The figures for assaults on staff include all incidents where a member of staff was assaulted, which can include a small number of incidents where the assault was by someone other than a prisoner.

How many offenders entering the secure estate had an (a) English and (b) mathematics functional skills level (a) below and (b) above entry-level 3 in each of the last 10 financial years.

The functional skills level of prisoners recorded from initial English and maths assessments are published as part of the annual Prison Education and Accredited Programmes Statistics at Prison Education and Accredited Programme Statistics - GOV.UK. The Ministry of Justice holds this data from 2019. Before this, prison education was the responsibility of the Department for Education.

How many offenders on the secure estate were held in unsuitable conditions while awaiting transfer in each of the last 10 financial years.

His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service do not hold prisoners in unsuitable physical conditions. Maintenance issues are reported locally to facilities management providers, who prioritise them for action. Cells that are deemed unsuitable for safety or decency reasons are either assessed for immediate action or, where necessary, removed from the prison’s operational capacity until restored to a suitable condition.To ascertain whether a prisoner awaiting transfer had ever been held in conditions that could be considered unsuitable would require a detailed search of individual prisoner, prison wing, and facilities management records. In view of the large number of transfers that take place each year, the requested information could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

How many prisons have a reading (a) strategy and (b) programme.

All prisons screen prisoners on arrival for reading ability and offer a curriculum with reading as part of the Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2 English courses.Courses delivered under the Prison Education Framework (PEF) include both accredited and non-accredited courses, commissioned by the Governor. To support and promote local reading strategies, prisons have procured additional reading services through the Prison Education Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). These provide further screening and assessment and deliver tailored support to prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties, or prisoners who are speakers of other languages with English needs. The Prison Education DPS has been used since 2020 to deliver 96 call-off contracts for reading and literacy support in 85 prisons. These contracts have a combined value of £5.97 million.It is not possible to provide information on how many prisons have offered courses in reading programmes in each of the last ten financial years, or how many teachers were employed over that period. In 2025, 1554 teachers were employed in public sector prisons in England.

How much funding was allocated to reading programmes on the secure estate in each of the last 10 financial years.

All prisons screen prisoners on arrival for reading ability and offer a curriculum with reading as part of the Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2 English courses.Courses delivered under the Prison Education Framework (PEF) include both accredited and non-accredited courses, commissioned by the Governor. To support and promote local reading strategies, prisons have procured additional reading services through the Prison Education Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). These provide further screening and assessment and deliver tailored support to prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties, or prisoners who are speakers of other languages with English needs. The Prison Education DPS has been used since 2020 to deliver 96 call-off contracts for reading and literacy support in 85 prisons. These contracts have a combined value of £5.97 million.It is not possible to provide information on how many prisons have offered courses in reading programmes in each of the last ten financial years, or how many teachers were employed over that period. In 2025, 1554 teachers were employed in public sector prisons in England.

How many teachers have been employed in prisons in each of the last 10 financial years.

All prisons screen prisoners on arrival for reading ability and offer a curriculum with reading as part of the Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2 English courses.Courses delivered under the Prison Education Framework (PEF) include both accredited and non-accredited courses, commissioned by the Governor. To support and promote local reading strategies, prisons have procured additional reading services through the Prison Education Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). These provide further screening and assessment and deliver tailored support to prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties, or prisoners who are speakers of other languages with English needs. The Prison Education DPS has been used since 2020 to deliver 96 call-off contracts for reading and literacy support in 85 prisons. These contracts have a combined value of £5.97 million.It is not possible to provide information on how many prisons have offered courses in reading programmes in each of the last ten financial years, or how many teachers were employed over that period. In 2025, 1554 teachers were employed in public sector prisons in England.

What steps her Department is taking to help reduce incidence of self harm on the secure estate.

We recognise that rates of self-harm across the estate are high, and we are taking action to address this.We provide individualised support through our case management process for people assessed as at risk of self-harm. This approach places a strong emphasis on identifying individual risks, triggers and protective factors and having effective care plans in place to record, address and mitigate risks.All new staff receive suicide and self-harm prevention and mental health awareness training, to increase skills in supporting at-risk prisoners.We fund Samaritans to train prisoners to provide emotional support to other prisoners in crisis (the Listener Scheme).

What steps her Department is taking to reduce delays in prisoners accessing emergency hospital care.

Prison governors are responsible for ensuring that their establishments respond promptly and appropriately to medical emergencies, and that prison staff are aware of their own responsibilities and of the local procedures in place to support a streamlined response.Responses to medical emergencies in prisons are undertaken and monitored locally by both prison staff and healthcare staff. Prison staff will secure the attendance of medical staff. During the day, or where a prison has 24-hour healthcare, commissioned healthcare staff will assess what intervention is needed and determine whether hospital treatment is required. Prison staff will arrange for an ambulance to attend, if needed, and escort it to the nearest, safest point of access to the patient, ensuring arrival and departure times of ambulances are recorded locally.Any incidents, including the time taken to respond, are discussed between prison and healthcare staff, either as part of a full debrief (in the case of the most serious incidents) or as part of the regular daily reflection on the events of the previous day.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce the amount of time prisoners spend in their cells.

We recognise the importance of prisoners having access to purposeful activity, including education. We know that this significantly reduces the likelihood of re-offending – by up to nine percentage points.After the previous Government ran the prison estate at over 99% capacity for years, our prison system is on the brink of collapse. It is very difficult to run an effective regime that rehabilitates prisoners and cuts reoffending, when prisons are so full. This Government is beginning to address the capacity crisis we inherited, to ensure that our prisons create better citizens, not better criminals.HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has introduced the National Regime Model, which creates a national infrastructure for planning, reviewing, and measuring purposeful activity. Every prison must now deliver a minimum of 60 minutes each day in the open air, and 120 minutes out of cell. Prisons are also required to set out how they are improving their regime offer year-on-year.All prisons are required to provide physical education (PE). HMPPS promotes participation in PE which it defines as activities supervised and organised as part of an establishment’s agreed PE programme. Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 58/2011 Physical Education for Prisoners specifies the requirement for prisons to offer a range of sport and gym-based activity for a minimum of two and half hours a week.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure prisoners on the secure estate undertake the minimum time for physical exercise.

We recognise the importance of prisoners having access to purposeful activity, including education. We know that this significantly reduces the likelihood of re-offending – by up to nine percentage points.After the previous Government ran the prison estate at over 99% capacity for years, our prison system is on the brink of collapse. It is very difficult to run an effective regime that rehabilitates prisoners and cuts reoffending, when prisons are so full. This Government is beginning to address the capacity crisis we inherited, to ensure that our prisons create better citizens, not better criminals.HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has introduced the National Regime Model, which creates a national infrastructure for planning, reviewing, and measuring purposeful activity. Every prison must now deliver a minimum of 60 minutes each day in the open air, and 120 minutes out of cell. Prisons are also required to set out how they are improving their regime offer year-on-year.All prisons are required to provide physical education (PE). HMPPS promotes participation in PE which it defines as activities supervised and organised as part of an establishment’s agreed PE programme. Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 58/2011 Physical Education for Prisoners specifies the requirement for prisons to offer a range of sport and gym-based activity for a minimum of two and half hours a week.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure prisoners on the secure estate have access to a careers mentor.

From April 2025, new Careers, Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) contracts will launch which will set consistent high standards for providers. Providers will be working on a national specification, and this will be mandated in all prisons. The CIAG Service will be supported by a new digital Learning & Work Progress Service that will capture prisoner goals throughout the life of their sentence. This means that prisoners will have access to CIAG that is relevant to their needs.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce overcrowding on the secure estate.

This Government inherited a criminal justice system in crisis, with prisons running at over 99% capacity and on the brink of total collapse. If our prisons overflowed, police would have been unable to make arrests and we would have faced the total breakdown of law and order. We had to take emergency measures in order avoid disaster. Our priority now is to ensure there is enough capacity in the prison estate in the short and longer term.Our 10-year Prison Capacity strategy published on 11 December sets out plans to deliver 14,000 prison places and maintain the places in our estate to ensure we have sufficient accommodation and explore the acquisition of land should we need to build more prison places.We have also launched an Independent Sentencing Review, chaired by former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke. The Review’s aim is to ensure we are never again left in a position where we have more prisoners than places available.The Lord Chancellor also announced a series of measures in October 2024 to manage the pressures on the prison estate until longer term reforms come into effect. This includes reforming our recall practices and an extension of the maximum period offenders can spend on Home Detention Curfew from 6 – 12 months.

What proportion of single justice procedure convictions were for which recordable offences in the most recent year for which data is available.

There were no defendants dealt with for any recordable offences under single justice procedure in the 12 months between September 2023 and September 2024, which is the most recent year for which data is available. Therefore, we can assume there were no convictions for recordable offences under SJP in this period.

How many people were serving life sentences for second listed offences in prisons in England and Wales on 31 October 2024.

Information that would enable us to answer these questions robustly is not collated centrally, and to obtain it would involve a manual interrogation of courts and prison records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the Department.

How many of the people serving life sentences for second listed offences in prisons in England and Wales on the 31 October 2024 (a) were serving a recall and (b) have never been released.

Information that would enable us to answer these questions robustly is not collated centrally, and to obtain it would involve a manual interrogation of courts and prison records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the Department.

How many and what proportion of the people serving life sentences for second listed offences in prisons in England and Wales on 31 October 2024 were sentenced (a) on or prior to 9 November 2000, (b) between 9 November 2000 and 4 April 2005 and (c) after 4 April 2005.

Information that would enable us to answer these questions robustly is not collated centrally, and to obtain it would involve a manual interrogation of courts and prison records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the Department.

What proportion of sentences handed out in open magistrates' courts were fines in each of the last five financial years.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of prosecutions at criminal courts in England and Wales between 2010 and June 2024 in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: June 2024. For prosecutions from the Magistrates’ courts in England & Wales between 2010 and 2023, the Magistrates court tool can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2023 - GOV.UK. The data requested can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Sentence Outcomes’ tab and using the ‘Sentence outcome’ filter to select ‘Fine’ in both the Magistrates’ court tool and the Outcome by Offence tool. Currently, in centrally collated sentencing data, it is only possible to identify cases recorded and processed on the Automated Track Case Management System as Single Justice Procedure (SJP) cases – this only reflects a portion of all SJP cases. There is work ongoing to improve this. Select the filter ‘SJP Flag’ to see number of these cases.

What proportion of magistrates' court sentences were fines in each of the last five financial years.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of prosecutions at criminal courts in England and Wales between 2010 and June 2024 in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: June 2024. For prosecutions from the Magistrates’ courts in England & Wales between 2010 and 2023, the Magistrates court tool can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2023 - GOV.UK. The data requested can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Sentence Outcomes’ tab and using the ‘Sentence outcome’ filter to select ‘Fine’ in both the Magistrates’ court tool and the Outcome by Offence tool. Currently, in centrally collated sentencing data, it is only possible to identify cases recorded and processed on the Automated Track Case Management System as Single Justice Procedure (SJP) cases – this only reflects a portion of all SJP cases. There is work ongoing to improve this. Select the filter ‘SJP Flag’ to see number of these cases.

What proportion of all sentences under the Single Justice Procedure were fines in each of the last five financial years.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of prosecutions at criminal courts in England and Wales between 2010 and June 2024 in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: June 2024. For prosecutions from the Magistrates’ courts in England & Wales between 2010 and 2023, the Magistrates court tool can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2023 - GOV.UK. The data requested can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Sentence Outcomes’ tab and using the ‘Sentence outcome’ filter to select ‘Fine’ in both the Magistrates’ court tool and the Outcome by Offence tool. Currently, in centrally collated sentencing data, it is only possible to identify cases recorded and processed on the Automated Track Case Management System as Single Justice Procedure (SJP) cases – this only reflects a portion of all SJP cases. There is work ongoing to improve this. Select the filter ‘SJP Flag’ to see number of these cases.