Written questions by Hayes.

How many agency staff were employed by his Department in each of the last five years.

Awaiting answer.

Other than special advisers if his Department has appointed anyone from outside the civil service since July 2024.

Awaiting answer.

What is the (a) total and (b) annual cost to the public purse of the Judicial and Legal Diversity Board.

Awaiting answer.

How many prisoners who will be made eligible for release halfway through their sentences were convicted of (1) rape and (2) sex offences.

Awaiting answer.

How many political appointees have been made by his Department since July 2024.

We have taken ‘political appointees’ to mean special advisers.A list of special advisers by Department is published each year in the Annual Report on Special Advisers which is laid in Parliament. The Annual Report on Special Advisers 2026 will be publishe...

Whether his Department has hired external public relations consultants since July 2024.

The Department has engaged external public relations consultants on three occasions since July 2024. Specialist Media Advisory Support was commissioned for the Judicial Appointments Commission in February 2025, Media Advisory Services for the Nottingham I...

Whether his Department permits civil servants employed in the UK to work from overseas on a regular basis.

The Ministry of Justice uses the term international remote working (IRW) to describe working remotely outside the UK. IRW is defined as when an employee wants to undertake the full responsibilities of their role remotely from abroad, for a short-term and ...

Whether his Department permits (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) officials to use (i) Chat GPT, (ii) Google Gemini, (iii) Claude, (iv) Deepseek and (v) Grok as part of their official duties.

The Government is committed to harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence to improve the productivity of the Civil Service and the quality of public services.Departments provide officials, Ministers and special advisers with access to secure, ente...

How much his Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.

This information is not held in the requested format.

How many people have been prosecuted for bigamy in each of the last ten years.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions for bigamy in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. This can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.

What recent steps he has taken to help protect prison officers from violence.

Staff must be able to expect a safe and decent work environment. We will not tolerate any violence against prison officers and prisoners who are violent towards staff will face the full consequences of their actions.We have invested over £40 million into ...

How many prison officers were issued with (a) tasers and (b) body armour in 2025.

Following a serious incident at HMP Frankland in April 2025, the Department acted quickly to review the use of protective body armour across the estate.As a result, we have introduced a significant expansion in provision, with protective body armour now m...

If he will publish the list of training programmes used by civil servants in his Department since 2020.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

How many prisoners were released early in Lincolnshire in the last 12 months.

This Government inherited prisons days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.Without the changes this Government made, courts would have had to halt trials and the police cancel arrests, undermining public safety and leading to a disastrous impact on public confidence in the criminal justice system.We regularly publish data on release from prison, including on forms of early release – for example we publish SDS40 data alongside the quarterly Offender Management statistics: Standard Determinate Sentence (SDS40) release data - GOV.UK.Whilst measures like the SDS40 change provided the intended medium-term relief to the system, this was only ever a temporary change as a bridge to a more sustainable solution. That is why the Sentencing Act has now been passed, to ensure we never run out of prison space again and to deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis.

Whether their Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the past 12 months.

The Ministry of Justice has rolled out general purpose artificial intelligence tools like Microsoft Copilot across the Department to enhance productivity and support the work of all staff, including policy professionals. AI is being used to assist the policy-making process with tasks like brainstorming ideas, clarifying drafting, and searching for publicly available information. The Department encourages officials to always cross-validate the outputs of AI rather than blindly trusting them, applying human judgement and oversight as appropriate.

Whether his Department has paid for followers on social media platforms it uses.

The Ministry of Justice has not paid for followers on its social media platforms.

The number of (a) Sharia councils and (b) people associated with roles on Sharia councils have been convicted of offences under the Equality Act 2010 in the last ten years.

Sharia Councils are not part of the judicial system; therefore, the Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of sharia councils in operation, and there is no plan to produce such data at this time.The Ministry of Justice publishes convictions data on a wide range of offences including offences under the Equality Act 2010 in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. This can be downloaded at the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

How much his Department has spent on special severance payments in each of the last three years.

The total value of severance payments is set out in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts, which are available for the last three years.

Whether any civil servants hired by his Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.

The Ministry of Justice welcomes and encourages applications from everyone irrespective of background, identity, experience, or circumstance, and particularly those underrepresented in our workforce. The Department does not appoint candidates on the basis of protected characteristics. Appointments are made in merit order, in line with the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.

If she will make an assessment of how many unregistered Islamic marriages there have been in the UK in each of the last ten years.

The Ministry of Justice does not collect data on the number of religious-only Islamic marriages that take place in the UK.The Government is aware of the differential treatment faced by groups that do not have a legally binding religious ceremony under the current law, and that some people, particularly women, can face serious financial problems as a result, if their relationship breaks down.That is why we have committed to weddings law reform that will make it more straightforward for religious groups to get legally married in accordance with their beliefs. We will be undertaking a consultation on the reform of weddings law in England and Wales, early this year.