Ministry of Justice

Question: How many people have been sentenced for (a) murder, (b) rape and (c) other sex offences in each year for the previous ten years, broken down by primary language.

Sir Nicholas Dakin:

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants sentenced for murder, rape, and other sex offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool. The latest publication (2023 data) is available from the Outcomes by Offence data tool published here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly – GOV.UK.

However, it is not possible to identify an offender’s primary language from the centrally collated convictions data. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.

Question: How many individuals per (a) nationality and (b) ethnicity were convicted of grooming offences since 2004.

Alex Davies-Jones:

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of offenders convicted, which can be filtered to specific offences and broken down by defendant ethnicity. This can be obtained in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2023.

However, data held centrally does not include an offender’s nationality. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate cost.

Question: How many new prison places are scheduled to be built in the next 12 months.

Sir Nicholas Dakin:

This Government is committed to continuing the prison build programmes, which include the construction of four further new prisons, as well as the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate.

I can confirm that HMP Millsike will deliver c.1,500 places in spring 2025. Construction is well underway on new houseblocks at HMP Fosse Way and HMP Rye Hill, delivering c.700 places between them, alongside the rollout of hundreds more Rapid Deployment Cells.

The Lord Chancellor has committed to publishing a 10-year capacity strategy this year, which will set out the steps we will t

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the average time taken for theft cases to be processed through the courts in each year since 2019.

Heidi Alexander:

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the average duration for various stages of the criminal justice system for defendants by offence group, including theft, from 2014 to 2023 (latest available) in the ‘End-to-end timeliness tool’ as part of Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly.

Question: How many shoplifting convictions there were by the nationality of the offender in Great Yarmouth constituency in each of the last five years.

Sir Nicholas Dakin:

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants convicted for shoplifting offences by Police Force Area in each of the last five years in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2023 – GOV.UK.

However, it is not possible to identify an offender’s nationality from the centrally collated convictions data. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.

Question: How many and what proportion of prison cells were not in use due to (a) disrepair and (b) poor estate conditions in October 2024.

Sir Nicholas Dakin:

This Government has inherited a prison system in crisis, with infrastructure crumbling, dangerous jails and our hardworking staff under immense pressure. We have taken difficult, but necessary action to urgently reduce capacity pressures and save prisons from the point of collapse. We continue to invest in the estate to ensure that prisons are safe, decent and secure.

As of 28 October, there were around 2,200 places out of use to enable planned maintenance, refurbishment or repair. This equates to 2% of all available prison places and we are working at pace to bring these places back online. This total cannot be broken down into the categories requested given that HMPPS does not record data in this way.

Question: What the reoffending rate of foreign national offenders was in each of the last five years.

Sir Nicholas Dakin:

The requested data on the reoffending rate of foreign national offenders can be found in the attached table. The proven reoffending rate for all adult offenders released from custody or starting a court order, in the April 21 to March 22 annual cohort, was 32.5%.

We refer all foreign national offenders in receipt of custodial sentences to the Home Office. Those sentenced to 12 months, or more are automatically considered for deportation.

Foreign national offenders who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation. This will help to manage prison pressures, keep the public safe and reduce crime. We are currently on track to remove more foreign national offenders this year than at any time in recent years and we are working across government to explore the ways we accelerate this work further.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2024 to Question 9762 on Offenders: Foreign Nationals, if her Department will commit to publishing a breakdown of foreign national offenders by nationality for (a) rape, (b) murder, (c) drug trafficking and (d) sexual offences for each of the last five years.

Sir Nicholas Dakin:

The Department currently has no plans to publish a breakdown of foreign national offenders by nationality and detailed offence type (which would include the requested information for rape, other sexual offences, murder and drug trafficking). However, we keep all our publications under review in line with the three key pillars of the Code of Practice for Statistics: trustworthiness, quality and value.

The requested data on the number of foreign criminals granted temporary release in each of the last 5 years can be found in the attached table.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants convicted for stalking offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2023. However, it is not possible to identify an offender’s nationality from the centrally collated convictions data. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.

Foreign national offenders who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, we will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation. We are currently on track to remove more FNOs this year than at any time in recent years. We are working across government, to explore the ways that we can accelerate this further.

Question: How much was spent on (a) translation and (b) interpretation costs in (i) all courts and (ii) Great Yarmouth Magistrates court in each of the last five years.

Heidi Alexander:

This question has been interpreted to mean spend for all language services, both translation and interpretation provided in a court setting, and for printed materials available in HMCTS buildings.

Information is not held disaggregated as (a) translation and (b) interpretation but has been provided in total.

The total spend by HMCTS on translation and interpretation in each of the last five financial years was:

Financial Year	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Total Cost	11,000,691	13,007,403	7,094,093	10,788,205	11,489,997	12,774,105

These figures do not include any translation or interpretation spend covered by Legal Aid Agency central funds as these are not included in the accounts for HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

It is vital that victims, witnesses and defendants understand what is happening in court to ensure justice is done, and we will always take steps to ensure a qualified interpreter is provided when needed.

The total spend by HMCTS on translation and interpretation for Great Yarmouth Magistrates Court in each of the last five financial years was:

Financial Year	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	2023-24
Total Cost	88	0	0	0	0	0

These figures do not include any translation or interpretation spend covered by Legal Aid Agency central funds as these are not included in the accounts for HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

Question: How many and what proportion of prisoners released under the early release scheme have been rearrested since September 2024.

Sir Nicholas Dakin:

Reoffending rates are published regularly on an annual and quarterly basis. The most recent rates are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics.

Prisoners released on SDS40 will be subject to licence and liable to recall to prison if they do not comply or are judged a risk to public safety.

Data on recall and reoffending of prisoners released since September 2024 forms a subset of data intended for future publication.

Question: How many people will be released from prisons in Norfolk under the early release scheme.

Our best national release estimates were published in the Statutory Instrument to Amend the Standard Determinate Sentence Automatic Release Point Impact Assessment published on 17 July 2024: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2024/117/pdfs/ukia_20240117_en.pdf.

Further statistics will be published in due course.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has made an estimate of reoffending rates for prisoners released under the early release scheme.

Prisoners released on SDS40 will be subject to licence and liable to recall to prison if they do not comply or are judged a risk to public safety. Reoffending rates are published regularly on an annual and quarterly basis. The most recent rates are available at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics.

A critical element of reducing reoffending is ensuring offenders leaving prison can access the support they need to resettle effectively into the community. An offender’s resettlement needs are assessed on their arrival into the prison estate, with appropriate provision arranged in advance of release. When the release date is changed, as is the case with SDS40, this provision is realigned to that new release date.

There are clear processes in place to ensure all releases are carefully managed by Prison and Probation staff.

Question: How many foreign-born criminals (a) are in prisons and (b) were released under the revised terms of the early release scheme in Norfolk since 10 September 2024.

Information on the number of Foreign Nationals in prisons can be found in Table 1_Q_12 here: Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66a1167cce1fd0da7b592c8d/Prison-population-30-June-2024.ods.

We are unable to provide the requested prisoner release figures at this time, as they form a subset of prisoner releases data scheduled for future publication. Numbers of custodial releases for the period covering July 2024 to September 2024 will be published on 30 January 2025, here: Offender management statistics quarterly – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Question: How many positions in her Department included (a) diversity, (b) inclusion, (c) equity and (d) equality in their job title in each of the last five years; and what the total cost of the salaries of each such job was in each of those years.

The Ministry of Justice does not routinely collate information on specific words and collating this information would come at a disproportionate cost.

Information on spending and staffing can be found in the Department’s annual report and accounts.

Question: What the (a) nationality and (b) class of crime is of foreign national offenders (i) in prison and (ii) deported this year. What the annual cost is of foreign national prisoners in each of the last three years; and how many foreign national prisoners there are.

Sir Nicholas Dakin:

There were 10,435 foreign national prisoners held in custody on 30 June 2024; representing 12% of the total prison population. We do not hold annual running cost data for foreign national prisoners. We publish costs per prison place via Prison and Probation Performance Statistics at: costs-per-place-per-prisoner-2022-2023-summary.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk).

The information requested on the nationality of foreign national offenders in prison is published quarterly in table 1_Q_12 of Offender Management Statistics, with the latest data (30 June 2024) available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66a1167cce1fd0da7b592c8d/Prison-population-30-June-2024.ods

Information on the offence group of foreign national offenders in prison on 30 June 2024 can be found in the attached table.

Information on deportations is a matter for the Home Office. Foreign national offenders who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, we will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation.

Table 1: Total Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) prison population broken down by [alleged / proven] offence group, as at 30^th June 2024, in England and Wales

Offence group	Number of prisoners
Violence against the person	2,988
Sexual offences	1,575
Robbery	435
Theft offences	733
Criminal damage and arson	88
Drug offences	2,460
Possession of weapons	411
Public order offences	159
Miscellaneous crimes against society	1,026
Fraud offences	122
Summary non-motoring	136
Summary motoring	40
Offence not recorded	262

Data sources and quality
The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Source: Prison NOMIS
PQ 6948 (Ministry of Justice; Analysis (Directorate))