Written questions by Obese-Jecty.

With reference to his Department's policy policy entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, if he will list the other government departments that will form the cross-departmental AI Steering Group.

The AI Steering Group brings together senior leaders from across the Ministry of Justice, including policy, data, digital, security, people, legal, HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS), HMCTS, risk, and communications, to oversee AI initiatives and manage risks. It does not have representation from other government departments. The Ministry of Justice regularly engages with other Departments on AI, including the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology, and attends various cross Government forums to discuss AI matters.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, when he expects the Assessing Risks Needs and Strengths tool to come into use.

The Assessing Risks, Needs and Strengths (or ARNS) tool is being tested by a small group of practitioners across four probation regions currently, to support its ongoing design and development. Elements of ARNS will begin to roll out nationally from March 2026, with further capabilities being released over time.

How many children were victims of sexual assault excluding statutory rape by other children in each year between 2015 and 2025 by (a) age and (b) gender.

The information requested on the number of children prosecuted for the offences listed (all forms of violent assault, battery, actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, murder and sexual assault offences) by age and gender, can be found at: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2024 - GOV.UK.The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of children arrested and charged as this is a matter for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. However, some information on arrests and charges can be found within the Crime Outcomes in England and Wales produced by the Home Office.Data centrally held does not include the number of children who were victims of crimes committed by other children, beyond information included in the offence type, nor how many children were murdered by other children, beyond infanticide. Whilst this information may be held in court records, examining individual records would incur disproportionate costs.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what estimate he has made of the potential cost to the public purse of funding for (a) talent, (b) training and (c) proactive workforce planning to accelerate AI adoption.

The Ministry of Justice has not made a specific cost estimate for funding talent, training, or proactive workforce planning to accelerate AI adoption.In establishing the Justice AI Unit, we are focused on delivering value for money by building internal capability and reducing reliance on external consultancies. This includes the launch of the Justice AI Fellowship to attract top digital and AI specialists, the Justice AI Academy to develop graduate skills, and the AI Talent Accelerator to upskill existing staff. These initiatives form part of the Department’s wider workforce and digital capability programmes, funded within existing departmental resources.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress he has made with with the Online Procedure Rule Committee to ensure that AI-enabled digital justice services are (a) coherent, (b) user-centred and (c) legally robust.

The Online Procedure Rule Committee is responsible for making rules governing the practice and procedure for specific types of online court and tribunal proceedings across the Civil, Family and Tribunal jurisdictions. These rules will ensure that those court and tribunal digital services are coherent, user-centred and legally robust.The Committee published a consultation on 11 July 2025 on its draft Inclusion Framework and Pre Action Model. This sought views on a wide variety of subjects including how to ensure digital justice services that aren’t provided by government, including those that use generative artificial intelligence, are delivered in a safe, transparent and accountable way across the Civil, Family and Tribunal jurisdictions.The consultation closed on 19 September 2025, and the committee plans to set out next steps in early 2026.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress he has made in exploring new funding mechanisms to support AI adoption.

The Ministry of Justice is working with existing suppliers to leverage their AI capabilities to support the delivery of services and will continue to explore the opportunities available in the supplier market that will support the delivery of the AI Action Plan. Through Procurement framework including Crown Commercial Services Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Spark DPS frameworks and leveraging the benefits of Memorandums of Understanding in place between HMG and supplier in the marketplace, the Ministry of Justice will develop AI capabilities for the future. The Department is also exploring funding mechanisms for AI and digital with the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology.

With reference to the policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2024, what the timetable is for the establishment of a dedicated Justice AI Unit.

The Justice AI Unit was established in November 2024.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the embedding of AI in the criminal justice system on the personalised rehabilitation of offenders.

AI shows great potential to help deliver swifter, fairer, and more accessible justice for all and this includes improving rehabilitation outcomes. The Ministry of Justice’s AI Action Plan for Justice sets out our ambition to target high-value use cases, which includes enabling personalised education and rehabilitation (e.g. tailored training for our workforce and offenders).

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the early results of the AI rollout.

We have received positive qualitative feedback from staff who have used general purpose productivity tools rolled out to the Ministry of Justice workforce. Staff have cited that these tools have helped them draft documents and summarise information at pace, freeing up time for higher-value work.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2025 to Question 46175 on Sexual Offences Act 2003, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to remove the requirement for the accused to have a penis in order to be charged with rape.

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 provides a robust framework of very serious offences criminalising non-consensual sexual penetration. The offence of rape under section 1 of that Act is committed whenever there is intentional penile penetration of a person’s mouth, anus or vagina without consent or reasonable belief in consent. Intentional sexual penetration of a person’s vagina or anus with something other than a penis and without consent or reasonable belief in consent is criminalised by the offence of assault by penetration under section 2 that Act. “Forced penetration”, where a person forces another to penetrate them with their penis (or something else) is covered by the offence of “causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent” under section 4 of that Act. These three sexual offences are equally serious under the law where penetration is involved and all attract a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The law in this area is rightly robust, well understood and working effectively. We therefore have no plans to amend the legal definition of section 1 rape, but we continue to keep the criminal law under review.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress he has made in delivering a dedicated AI communications plan.

Transparency of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used is fundamental to earning public trust and ensuring the responsible use of AI. We are making progress against our aim to deliver a dedicated AI Communications Plan, which includes establishing internal and external-facing channels that showcase the department’s ethical use of AI. For the internal workforce, we have established a dedicated ‘AI for All’ hub which provides access to training sessions, webinars, and practical resources to support safe, responsible use of AI tools. Separately, our public-facing online hub at ai.justice.gov.uk serves as a central point of engagement for the public and provides updates on the Ministry of Justice’s ethical use of AI.

How many children were (a) arrested, (b) charged and (c) prosecuted for (i) all forms of violent assault, (ii) battery, (iii) actual bodily harm and (iv) grievous bodily harm by (A) age and (B) gender in each year since 2015.

The information requested on the number of children prosecuted for the offences listed (all forms of violent assault, battery, actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, murder and sexual assault offences) by age and gender, can be found at: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2024 - GOV.UK.The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of children arrested and charged as this is a matter for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. However, some information on arrests and charges can be found within the Crime Outcomes in England and Wales produced by the Home Office.Data centrally held does not include the number of children who were victims of crimes committed by other children, beyond information included in the offence type, nor how many children were murdered by other children, beyond infanticide. Whilst this information may be held in court records, examining individual records would incur disproportionate costs.

How many children were (a) arrested, (b) charged and (c) prosecuted for sexual assault, including rape but excluding statutory rape, by (i) age and (ii) gender in each year since 2015.

The information requested on the number of children prosecuted for the offences listed (all forms of violent assault, battery, actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm, murder and sexual assault offences) by age and gender, can be found at: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2024 - GOV.UK.The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of children arrested and charged as this is a matter for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. However, some information on arrests and charges can be found within the Crime Outcomes in England and Wales produced by the Home Office.Data centrally held does not include the number of children who were victims of crimes committed by other children, beyond information included in the offence type, nor how many children were murdered by other children, beyond infanticide. Whilst this information may be held in court records, examining individual records would incur disproportionate costs.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of using AI to improve scheduling on prison capacity.

AI tools can quickly create the best schedules by analysing real-time data about staff, capacity, risks, and priorities. We are exploring how this could help with managing prison capacity and other scheduling challenges such as listing in courts and tribunals.

How much capacity within the prison estate will be created via the deportation of foreign national offenders by 31 December 2025.

The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) is a priority of this Government. Deporting FNOs as quickly as possible protects the public, reduces pressures on prison capacity and lessens the associated expense to the taxpayer.From 5 July 2024 to 4 July 2025 there were 2,632 Early Removal Scheme (ERS) removals from prison, which is a 10% increase compared to the 2,385 in the same period 12 months prior.And this Government is going further: on 23 September we changed the law to reduce the time that FNOs must serve in prison before removal to 30% of their prison sentence. In steady state we expect this change will free up approximately 500 additional prison spaces a year.Additionally, the Sentencing Bill currently before Parliament proposes to remove the minimum time to serve requirement altogether so that FNOs can be eligible for deportation immediately after they are sentenced.The timing of when prison place savings will be realised from deporting FNOs is dependent on the Home Office’s rate of removals which will continue to be monitored over the coming months.

Pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2025 to Question 73845 on Prison Accommodation, how many of those places were approved for construction since July 2024 in each location.

None of the places referenced in PQ 73845 were approved for construction since July 2024. They were all approved prior to July 2024.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress has he made in providing all staff with secure, enterprise-grade AI assistants by December 2025.

The Ministry of Justice is making strong progress in delivering secure, enterprise-grade AI tools to staff in line with the AI Action Plan for Justice. Through the Department’s AI for All initiative, all staff now have access to a secure AI assistant that supports day-to-day tasks such as drafting, summarising and document handling. Work is also under way to deploy advanced AI capabilities to assist with more complex functions, including research, data analysis and case-management support, helping to improve productivity, reduce administrative burden and enable staff to focus on higher-value work.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress he has made in establishing a (a) single and (b) secure identity for each individual within the criminal justice system.

We are continuing to explore the potential for a single, secure digital identity for each person interacting with the justice system. The Core Person Record service, which links existing data across courts, prisons and probation, is currently being piloted and represents an early step towards this ambition. Delivering a single, secure identity will form part of a wider programme of long-term transformation, supported by investment in data quality, interoperability and infrastructure across the justice system.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress he has made in strengthening partnerships with regulators to support AI-driven legal innovation.

The AI Action Plan for Justice commits the Ministry of Justice to working with regulators to support responsible AI adoption across the legal sector (Action 3.5). Legal Service Regulators are independent of government, but the Ministry of Justice maintains strong and close working relationships with them – for example, by offering AI-related training, facilitating knowledge-sharing, and maintaining regular engagement, including hosting a recent roundtable with a broad range of regulators to identify practical ways to support innovation across the sector. Our shared goal is to ensure regulation remains proportionate, evidence-based, and adaptable as AI technologies evolve.

With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what steps he is taking to enhance (a) AI leadership, (b) governance, (c) ethics, (d) data, (e) digital infrastructure and (f) commercial frameworks.

The Ministry of Justice’s AI Action Plan for Justice set out a series of bold, ambitious steps to promote the responsible use of AI tools across the department and the wider justice system. A Justice AI Unit headed up by a Chief AI Officer has been established. To embed ethics into our approach, we have developed a publicly accessible AI and Data Science Ethics Framework. This practical toolkit, created in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute, guides developers, policymakers, and decision-makers from inception through to deployment. We are also taking steps to improve the quality of our data to facilitate greater AI enablement. This includes linking offender data across systems through our BOLD and Data First programmes to improve public safety, rehabilitation, youth justice, prevention and victim services.The Ministry of Justice is working with existing suppliers to leverage their AI capabilities to support the delivery of services and will continue to explore the opportunities available in the supplier market that will support the delivery of the AI Action Plan. Through Procurement framework including Crown Commercial Services Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Spark DPS frameworks and leveraging the benefits of Memorandums of Understanding in place between HMG and supplier in the marketplace, the Ministry of Justice will develop AI capabilities for the future.