Written questions by Obese-Jecty.

What recent progress she has made on the Small Secure Houseblocks programme.

The Government’s commitment is to deliver 14,000 additional prison places, by 2031, as set out in the 2024 Prison Capacity Strategy. Since July 2024, we have already delivered c.2,500 additional prison places.The Small Secure Houseblocks (SSH) Programme is a key component of our plans to increase capacity. Based on current plans, this programme will deliver c.1,000 new Category C places across the estate. The design stage of the SSH programme is now complete and main construction work is underway.

How many prison officers require stab vests due to the danger of the prisoners in their charge.

The previous Lord Chancellor announced in June the mandatory use of Protective Body Armour (PBA – also known as stab vests), for staff in specialist units, which includes Close Supervision Centres, Separation Centres and Segregation Units in the Long-Term High Security Estate. Following this announcement, 750 vests have been ordered.PBA is available for use when deemed necessary in prisons, including:Operational Response and Resilience Unit staff who wear protective body armour when deployed. This includes the National Tactical Response Group and the National Dog and Tactical Support Group staff.Staff mobilised under ‘Operation Tornado’, a national mutual aid plan by which prisons support one another in the event of a serious incident or occurrence requiring a reinforcement of staff, are issued with PBA as part of their personal protective equipment.Prison Officers are required to wear PBA, along with other Personal Protective Equipment, when they engage in the planned use of force or where safe systems of work for the management of high-risk prisoners dictates.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 53712 on Prisons: Construction, how many Category A prison places she plans to be built as part of the Prison Capacity Strategy.

This Government will get the prison places built that the previous Government failed to deliver or fund. We are delivering 14,000 additional prison places and aim to do so by 2031, as set out in the 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy. This consists of the construction of four new prisons, including the recently delivered HMP Millsike, as well as the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate and temporary accommodation. These places are all within the Category B, Category C, and Category D estates, where the greatest level of demand is projected.

How many prison spaces were available across all Category C specialist sex offender prisons as of 30 April 2025.

There are 9 specialist category C prisons that hold only prisoners convicted of sexual offences. These are listed below, alongside their published operational capacity on 28 April 2025.PrisonOperational Capacity (28 April 2025)Ashfield416Bure643Littlehey1241Risley1034Rye Hill1008Stafford761The Verne608Usk276Whatton836

How many (a) Category A, (b) Category B, (c) Category C and (d) Category D prison spaces her Department plans to build by 2031 as part of the Prison Capacity Strategy.

The prison population has nearly doubled in the past three decades, with just 500 extra prison places added in the last 14 years. To put an end to this crisis, the Government confirmed plans to invest £4.7 billion more in prison building, putting the Government on track to open 14,000 places by 2031. This is the largest prison expansion programme since the Victorians. Since July 2024, 2,400 places have already been opened.As set out in the 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, we are committed to delivering the remaining 14,000 places of the 20,000 prison place programmes and aim to do so by 2031. Around 8,500 of these places have been delivered through three new Category C prisons, hundreds of rapid deployment cells, essential refurbishments and modern houseblocks.We plan to deliver three more new prisons; these include a new prison in Leicestershire which will add c.1,700 places to the Category B estate, a new prison in Buckinghamshire that will add c.1,500 places to the Category C estate and a new prison in Lancashire that will add c.1,700 places to the Category C estate.We also plan to deliver additional places through the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate and temporary accommodation. These places will add c.1,750 places to the Category B estate, c.4,200 places to the Category C estate, c.1,550 places to the Category D estate.

How many prison spaces are (a) available and (b) projected to be available at HMP Littlehey over the next three years; and what the maximum capacity is at that prison.

The operational capacity of each prison is published monthly at Prison population: monthly prison figures 2025 - GOV.UK. The current operational capacity of Littlehey is 1241, and there are currently no plans to change this.

How many staff in her Department have been issued with a (a) laptop, (b) phone and (c) both.

Please find the figures for the number of phones, laptops and both issued by the Department. Please note this data does not include missing devices: Laptop Phone Both MOJ 9995120097338HMCTS 1576363205435HMPPS 347073148523759ALBs 629634052535 The Ministry of Justice is a large operational department with over 90,000 employees. The laptops and phones issued are always encrypted.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of updating the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to reflect that rape can be committed by either sex.

The offence of rape under section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 is committed whenever there is penile penetration without consent or reasonable belief in consent. Non-penile penetration without consent or reasonable belief in consent is criminalised by the offence of assault by penetration under Section 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.The law in this area is rightly robust, well-understood and working effectively. We therefore have no plans to amend the legal definition of rape.

How many religious conversions of prisoners have taken place in 2024-25; and to which religions.

While we collate details of religious affiliation recorded when prisoners enter custody, in order to establish the number of conversions, we would need to undertake a search of individual records, and this could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.

How many prison places are required to end early prisoner release schemes.

In July 2024, the Lord Chancellor announced a change to the automatic release point for those serving eligible Standard Determinate Sentences (SDS) from 50% to 40%. SDS40 is a necessary measure to avoid prison capacity pressures causing gridlock in the Criminal Justice System. Whilst the SDS change provided the intended medium-term relief to the system, this is not intended to be a long-term solution. To ensure we are never in a position where we run out of prison places again, the Lord Chancellor announced the Independent Review into Sentencing, alongside a series of prison capacity measures. This included reforming our recall practices to target the unsustainable growth in the recall population since the pandemic and an extension of the maximum period offenders can spend on Home Detention Curfew from 6 to12 months. We also recently published our 10-year capacity strategy which sets out our ambition to build 14,000 prison places by 2031. This includes our new prison of nearly 1,500 prison places at HMP Millsike, which received its first prisoners this week.The Independent Sentencing Review published its Part 1 report on 18 February. The Review’s final report is expected to be published in the spring of this year and will set out the immediate and longer-term recommendations for reform. As the Lord Chancellor has previously announced, the SDS40 policy will be reviewed after 18 months.

How many (a) phones, (b) laptops and (c) other electronic devices have been lost by their Department since 5 July 2024.

The figures for the number of phones, laptops and other electronic devices lost by the Department since 5 July 2024 are as follows:LaptopsPhonesOther Hardware515322153Lost devices constitute to devices that are misplaced and cannot be found by the user.

How many new prisons are planned to be completed by July 2029.

In the recently published 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy the Lord Chancellor has committed to delivering three new prisons, one in Leicestershire (next to HMP Gartree), one in Buckinghamshire (next to HMPs Grendon and Springhill) and one in Lancashire (next to HMPs Garth and Wymott).We aim to deliver these places by the end of 2031. This is in addition to the three new prisons that have already been delivered as part of the 20,000 prison place programmes to date; HMP Five Wells, HMP Fosse Way and HMP Millsike, which was officially opened on 27 March 2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2025 to Question 40749 on Human Trafficking: Children, what steps she is taking to improve the accuracy of recording the number of child victims of human trafficking.

The Ministry of Justice publishes criminal court outcomes against offences as defined in legislation, including offences where the age of victims is recorded only if that is part of the specific offence wording.The Department does not capture or hold the information on victim age within court record management system more generally, because there is no operational business need to do so.Information on victim age may be held and recorded earlier in the criminal justice process by partners such as the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 March 2025 to Question 40749 Human Trafficking: Children, what steps she is taking to enable victim age to be recorded in the Court Proceedings Database.

The Ministry of Justice publishes criminal court outcomes against offences as defined in legislation, including offences where the age of victims is recorded only if that is part of the specific offence wording.The Department does not capture or hold the information on victim age within court record management system more generally, because there is no operational business need to do so.Information on victim age may be held and recorded earlier in the criminal justice process by partners such as the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

How many people have been convicted of child trafficking by (a) nationality and (b) arresting police force in each year since 2010.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for a wide range of offences, including human trafficking up to and including June 2024 in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK.These include all human trafficking offences convicted, not just those against children. It is not possible to separately identify all such convictions that relate to children as the information on the victim age is not recorded in the Court Proceedings Database held by the Ministry of Justice.Data held centrally does not include the nationality of the offender. The police force recorded in the Court Proceedings Database relates to the police force area associated with the court where the case was heard and not the arresting police force. The arresting police force is not held centrally in the Court Proceedings Database.

If she will make an estimate of the number of foreign nationals from (a) Guinea-Bissau and (b) Portugal that have been convicted in the UK since 2010.

The Ministry of Justice is unable to provide data on how many Bissau-Guinean nationals and Portuguese nationals have been convicted at court. This is because it is not possible to identify an offender's nationality from the centrally collated convictions data.However, the Department is able to provide data on foreign nationals in prison and also those under probation supervision in the community.(a) The nationality of foreign offenders in prison is published quarterly in table 1_Q_12 of Offender Management Statistics, with the latest data (31 December 2024) available from prison-population-31-Dec-2024.ods. As of the 31 December 2024, there was one Bissau-Guinean national and 260 Portuguese nationals in HMPPS custody.(b) The nationality of foreign offenders under probation supervision can be found in table 6_9 of Offender Management Statistics, with the latest data (30 September 2024) available from Probation-Jul-to-Sep-2024.ods. As of the 30 September 2024, there are 474 Portuguese nationals under probation supervision in the community and no records of Bissau-Guinean nationals under probation supervision.Previous publications of the Offender Management Statistics quarterly bulletin can be found at Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.

What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on support for male victims of (a) rape and (b) sexual assault.

This Government was elected on its landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. VAWG crimes disproportionately affect women and girls, but we know that men and boys are also often victims, and this Government is absolutely committed to stopping sexual violence against all victims. I recently chaired a roundtable, which brought together key voices from the victim’s sector to ensure men’s voices are heard, and I am working closely with my ministerial counterparts in the Home Office and across government to make sure that the Safer Streets mission, and our upcoming strategy, addresses the needs of all victims.Support services such as the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support line, and services funded through Department’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund, are available to all victims regardless of their gender. Similarly, new policies, such as Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, and the incoming Independent Legal Advice service, apply to all victims.

Whether her Department provides support to SurvivorsUK’s webchat.

For FY 2024-25 the Ministry of Justice has allocated grant funding of £127,463 to SurvivorsUK to deliver the National Male Survivors’ Online Helpline.The grant for the National Male Survivors’ Online Helpline, delivered by SurvivorsUK, will expire on 31 March 2025. The Ministry of Justice has worked with SurvivorsUK on their exit planning arrangements for our grant funding and the Department was informed that the online helpline service will continue due to SurvivorsUK securing alternative funding.The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line, funded by the Department and currently delivered by Rape Crisis England and Wales, will be extended until 31 March 2026. This service supports all victims of sexual violence, regardless of their gender.We inherited a criminal justice system in crisis as well as an incredibly challenging financial inheritance meaning difficult decisions across the board. These are not calls we have taken lightly - but by continuing to protect funding for sexual violence and domestic abuse services, we will make sure brave victims can get the vital help they need to rebuild their lives.

What funding is available to the Male Rape Fund in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.

The Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASASF) was recommissioned in 2023. To streamline the funding schemes that specialist sexual abuse organisations needed to apply to, the Ministry of Justice amalgamated the Male Rape Support Services Fund into one RASASF.£21 million is committed to the RASASF in each year: 2024-25 and 2025-26. Grant funded activities support all victims of rape and sexual abuse, including men and boys, to cope with their experiences and move forward with their lives.

What the budget for victim and witness support services was in 2024-25.

We do not routinely publish the full Ministry of Justice budget for victim and witness support services, as funding awards are subject to change and many services will receive funding from multiple sources. At the end of the financial year, a breakdown of grant funding is made publicly available on the Government Grants Information System, covering the previous financial period of grant spending.