Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
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Tuesday Volume 620 24 January 2017 No. 97 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 24 January 2017 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2017 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 139 24 JANUARY 2017 140 Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab): Will the Minister House of Commons confirm that that means there is no longer a requirement for a gender recognition certificate? Will he also tell us how confident he is that these guidelines are being Tuesday 24 January 2017 applied across the whole estate and when he expects to do an assessment of their impact? The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock Dr Lee: The underlying principle is that people are PRAYERS cared for and managed in the gender with which they identify, rather than that being based solely on their legally recognised gender. As I said earlier, the guidelines [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] came about through interaction with various independent organisations, and staff are being trained in this area. I think some perspective is required here: we have a Oral Answers to Questions prison system that is traditionally male-female, and we are dealing with relatively small numbers, but, yes, I am Justice keeping an eye on this issue. In particular, with regard to recent tragic events, I am also looking individually at The Secretary of State was asked— each case. Transgender Prisoners Prisoner Rehabilitation 1. Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab): What support and resources the Government are providing to transgender 2. Jeremy Quin (Horsham) (Con): What steps the prisoners. [908338] Government are taking to improve prisoner rehabilitation. [908339] The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Dr Phillip Lee): The House will be aware of the tragic The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice death of Jenny Swift at Doncaster prison on 30 December. (Elizabeth Truss): The Prison and Courts Reform Bill My sympathies are with her family. As with all deaths in will for the first time set out in legislation that the custody, there will be an inquest and an independent reform of offenders, as well as the punishment of offenders, investigation by the prisons and probation ombudsman. is a key purpose of prison. We need to make sure the We are firmly committed to ensuring that transgender whole system is focused on getting prisoners the education offenders are treated fairly, lawfully and decently, with they need, and getting them off drugs and into jobs, so their rights and safety respected. that we can reduce the £15 billion cost of reoffending. Carolyn Harris: I cautiously welcome the new guidance Jeremy Quin: I commend my right hon. Friend for regarding the management of transgender prisoners, the work she is doing in making prison governors more and I am sure we are all keen to see all transgender accountable. Will she set out the standards she is laying people treated with respect and dignity. However, can down so that prison improvements, and indeed offender the Minister assure the House that the new guidance outcomes, can be properly measured? applies to transgender people held in immigration and detention centres, as well as to those housed in the Elizabeth Truss: My hon. Friend is absolutely right general prison system? that we need standards so that we can hold prison Dr Lee: I thank the hon. Lady for her question. The governors to account on what they are achieving. We new guidelines to staff were issued on 9 November, are going to start introducing those standards from following a review of the management and care of April 2017. They will include measures such as prison transgender offenders. The review involved independent safety, progress made in English and maths, progress on oversight, including from the Prison Reform Trust. To getting offenders into employment and measuring the put the issue into perspective, we have 70 people in this time out of cell in prisons. position in the estate at the moment, which broadly reflects the incidence in the population. Specifically on Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): The the question the hon. Lady asks, if she writes to me, I Secretary of State will know that good rehabilitation will reply. depends on at least two things: a good probation service providing aftercare when people leave prison, and good Ben Howlett (Bath) (Con): The National Offender partnerships with the business community and employers, Management Service guidance is very welcome, but will who will give people appropriate employment to steer the Minister outline whether it applies to non-binary them on their way. We have had some good experience people who are in prisons, because this issue is not just at Reading and other jails. Will the Secretary of State about those who define themselves as men or women back that kind of partnership? but about non-binary people as well? Elizabeth Truss: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely Dr Lee: I thank my hon. Friend for that question. right. We know that when somebody gets into work on Again, to put the issue into perspective, we currently leaving prison, they are much less likely to reoffend. We have four people who are in that position in the estate. are going to launch an employment strategy later this The new guidelines state that all transgender prisoners year to encourage more employers like Timpsons, which “must be allowed to express the gender with which they identify”, already does a fantastic job, to participate. We also irrespective of prison location. want to get the third sector involved in that rehabilitation 141 Oral Answers 24 JANUARY 2017 Oral Answers 142 programme.Wewill also announce reforms to the probation Fixed-term Recalls system, and one key focus will be on how the probation service gets people into employment. 3. Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con): What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of fixed-term recalls. Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con): Has [908340] there been progress on getting accurate job vacancy data from the Department for Work and Pensions in the The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice areas to which prisoners will be released, to focus work (Mr Sam Gyimah): An offender who is assessed as preparation in prisons as effectively as possible? presenting a high risk of serious harm will receive a standard recall. Thereafter, they will be re-released before Elizabeth Truss: We are working with the Department the end of their sentence only if the risk they pose is for Work and Pensions to get the data and make sure reduced and they can be safely managed in the community. that they are much more linked up. By giving governors In cases that are not high risk, however, a fixed-term more power we will enable them to work with local recall is often a more appropriate response. employers in making sure that jobs are available. We are training people in prison and getting them Philip Davies: It is bad enough that prisoners are into apprenticeships so that they can continue those automatically released halfway through the sentence, apprenticeships and that work when they leave prison. whether or not they still pose a risk to the public, but when someone released on licence from prison then reoffends, surely the least the public can expect is that Dr Lisa Cameron (East Kilbride, Strathaven and the criminals concerned are sent back to prison to serve Lesmahagow) (SNP): What steps are the Government the remainder of their prison sentence in full. Instead, a taking to ensure that mental health problems are picked huge number of these people are simply recalled to up as part of the rehabilitation process, not just to prison for just 28 days on a fixed-term recall, sometimes reduce suicide rates in prisons but to ensure that services on multiple occasions. How does the Minister justify are streamlined on release? this fraud on the British public? Elizabeth Truss: The hon. Lady is absolutely right Mr Gyimah: As I said, where a high risk is posed, the that mental health is a major issue. We are giving prisoner will not be re-released before the end of their governors more power over the commissioning of mental sentence. Offenders on licence who are charged with a health services in prison. I also want to see better further offence and assessed as presenting a high risk of diagnosis of mental health issues earlier in the criminal serious harm receive a standard recall. If they are justice system, when people appear in court and when convicted of a further offence, they get a fresh sentence. they are on community sentences. Tom Elliott (Fermanagh and South Tyrone) (UUP): In a recent case in Northern Ireland, someone charged Dr Tania Mathias (Twickenham) (Con): Will the with a serious terrorist offence in connection with the Secretary of State set a high standard for employment murder of prison officer David Black absconded when projects in prisons along the lines of the experience in he was on bail, and the police did not report that to the Padua? I am sure that she is aware of Pasticceria courts for over five weeks. Is the Minister aware of that, Giotto, an outstanding and exporting bakery business. and has he had any discussions with the Minister of Justice in Northern Ireland to take this matter forward? Elizabeth Truss: I thank my hon. Friend for her comments. Catering and bakery is a big area in which Mr Speaker: That is only tangentially related to the we do a lot of training already.