Written questions by Hayes.

How many and what proportion of criminal trials involved a jury in each of the last ten years.

Only 3% of all cases were heard by a jury in the year to June 2025. This is based on the number of not guilty pleas as a proportion of all cases for trial, excluding Single Justice Procedure cases. Over 90% of criminal cases are heard in the magistrates’ courts without juries.The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes information concerning the volume of trials at the criminal courts as part of Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly which can be found here: Criminal Court Statistics - GOV.UK.

How much the Legal Aid Agency has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.

The requested information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

How much HM Courts and Tribunals Service has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.

The information requested can be found in the table below. Translation:FYTranslationFY21-22£ 51,231.54FY22-23£ 113,487.07FY23-24£ 140,829.23FY24-25£ 126,433.75FY25-26£ 78,995.19Total£ 510,976.78Interpreting:FYInterpretingFY21/22£ 22,225,742.45FY22/23£ 27,362,968.49FY23/24£ 31,022,423.14FY24/25£ 32,390,150.55FY25/26£ 20,517,115.66Total£ 133,518,400.29 The Ministry of Justice has a statutory duty to provide Language Services to enable access to justice for users whom English is not their first language. Language Service needs and spend are assessed to ensure these services offer good value for money for taxpayers whilst maintaining high standards of service delivery.

How much HM Prison and Probation Service has spent on translation and interpretation services in each of the last five years.

The information requested can be found in the tables below.Translation:FY Translation FY21-22£ 83,462.46FY22-23£ 137,213.31FY23-24£ 280,071.34FY24-25£ 328,526.54FY25-26£ 142,303.32Total £ 971,576.97 Interpreting:FY Interpreting FY21/22£ 133,776.35FY22/23£ 125,495.41FY23/24£ 163,546.08FY24/25£ 161,212.42FY25/26£ 105,987.79Total £ 690,018.05 The Ministry of Justice has a statutory duty to provide Language Services to enable access to justice for users whom English is not their first language. Language Service needs and spend are assessed to ensure these services offer good value for money for taxpayers whilst maintaining high standards of service delivery.

If he will list the titles of all the events organised by Civil Service networks in his Department since 2017.

The information requested is not held centrally.The Department only holds details of events organised by Ministry of Justice staff networks.

How many (a) single sex and (b) gender neutral bathroom facilities his Department provides in its premises.

This information can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

What the nationalities were of the non-British nationals released from prison under the Standard Determinate Sentences 40 releases that took place between September 2024 and December 2024.

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. On 10 September 2024, the Government therefore took the unavoidable step to move the release point for certain standard determinate sentences from 50% to 40% (‘SDS40’).We have published SDS40 release data alongside the quarterly Offender Management Statistics, in line with the Lord Chancellor’s commitment to transparency.Please find statistics on overall prison population nationality here: Offender management statistics quarterly: October to December 2024 - GOV.UK.Please find statistics on SDS40 release nationality here: Standard Determinate Sentence 40 (SDS40) : September 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK.

How many prisoners erroneously released since July 2024 have since been recaptured.

Releases in error have been increasing for several years and are another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this Government.While the overwhelming majority of offenders are released correctly, we’re clamping down on those releases in error that do occur – including through improved staff training and establishing a new specialist unit. A joint protocol between HMPPS and NPCC is in place, to ensure effective and timely communication between partner agencies when an individual is released in error to rearrest them as quickly as possible.We have gripped this chaos – by building more prison places, ending the last Government’s early release scheme, being transparent with the public, immediately making changes to sentences to ease pressure on the system and now, taking landmark reforms through our Sentencing Bill to make sure that prisons never run out of places againTotals for releases in error are published each July in the HMPPS Annual Digest, available via HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK, and provide data up to March 2025.

What measures his Department has in place to continue to run critical services in the event of a major internet outage.

The Government has a robust set of policies in place to ensure there are well-defined and tested incident management processes, and to ensure continuity of essential functions in the event of system or service failure. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology will publish the Government Cyber Action Plan this Winter, which will set out a clear approach for the Government and the Wider Public Sector to manage cyber security and resilience incidents.

Whether (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers in his Department have met with abortion providers since July 2024.

Details of Ministers’ meetings with external organisations and individuals are published by Departments quarterly in arrears on their departmental pages on gov.uk. The most recent data - for the period April 2025 to June 2025 - was published on 25 September.Special Advisers are required to comply with the Special Adviser Code of Conduct at all times and are required to make declarations on meetings with senior media figures in line with published transparency guidance.

What estimate he has made of the number of community service hours offenders have completed in Lincolnshire in each of the last five years.

Between January 2022 and December 2024, a total of 140,104 hours of unpaid work were completed in Lincolnshire.Year Unpaid work hours workedJanuary to December 202231,901January to December 202353,817January to December 202454,386Data sourced from nDelius on 25/09/2025. While these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.Data prior to July 2021 is unable to be reported on, due to difficulty in aligning regions pre and post-unification of the Probation Service. Because of this, we are unable to provide an accurate number of hours completed for 2021.

With reference to the Answer of 9 September 2025 to Question 74306 on Ministry of Justice: Social Media, how much his Department has spent on promotion through social media influencers since July 2024 broken down by influencer.

The Ministry of Justice uses social media, influencers and online advertising to support the department in delivering its key priorities. These priorities include our recruitment campaigns for prison officers, probation officers and magistrates which help to ensure our front-line services are safely resourced and able to deliver swift access to justice as well as our campaigns that support victims of crime access the support they need. Commercial sensitivities exist around aspects of this spend which could prejudice commercial interests. All spend in these areas are subject to the standard value for money assessments.

How many vacancies for prison officers there were in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) the East Midlands in the latest period for which figures are available.

We publish prison establishment level indicative vacancies in the HMPPS Workforce stats, table 4 of the Prison and Probation Officer Recruitment annex: HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: June 2025 - GOV.UK.East Midlands and Lincolnshire data as below (further information and Notes explanation can be found at the above link).Table 4: Difference between Target Staffing (Full Time Equivalent) and Staff in Post(2) (Hours Adjusted FTE) for Band 3 to 5 Prison Officers(3), by HMPPS Public Sector Prison Establishment(12) Jun-25 GroupPrison EstablishmentStaff in Post(1)(2)(3)(14)(16) (FTE)Target Staffing(4)(10)(16) (FTE)Difference(5)(11)(13)(15)(16) (FTE)East MidlandsLeicester135139-4East MidlandsMorton Hall118125-6East MidlandsNottingham289300-11East MidlandsOnley182195-13East MidlandsRanby264271-7East MidlandsStocken269283-13East MidlandsWhatton1961924LincolnshireLincoln196201-4LincolnshireNorth Sea Camp5761-3

On how many days the Union Flag was flown on his Department's main buildings in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025 to date.

The Union Flag was flown on every available day throughout 2024 and 2025 at 102 Petty France, subject to other designated flag flying days where the Union Flag was not flown. On days where there were excess wind speeds no flags were flown and we did not record the number of occasions this happened.

How many prisoners released through early release schemes in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025 are resident in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

This Government inherited prisons days from collapse. We have had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on releases by constituency. However, we have published SDS40 release data alongside the quarterly Offender Management Statistics: Standard Determinate Sentence 40 (SDS40) : September 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK.

Whether her Department has spent money on promotion through social media influencers since July 2024.

The Ministry of Justice has spent money on social media influencers and social media content creators since July 2024. Influencers can be effective in reaching audiences that the Government and traditional marketing channels find hard to reach. For example, to help us reach potential candidates for prison officer roles as part of our recruitment campaigns.

How much the Office of the Public Guardian has spent on equipment for staff to work from home in each of the last three years.

Information on the cost of equipment provided specially for home working cannot be obtained without incurring a disproportionate cost, due to the way these costs are recorded.

How much the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority has spent on equipment for staff to work from home in each of the last three years.

The following table outlines the amounts the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority has spent on equipment for staff to work from home in each of the last three financial years.Financial YearTotal Cost2022-23£3,938.152023-24£853.982024-25£3,923.81Total Spend£8,715.94

How much His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has spent on equipment for staff to work from home in each of the last three years.

Obtaining this information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

How much the Legal Aid Agency has spent on equipment for staff to work from home in each of the last three years.

This information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.Heads of departments have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service.