Written questions by Anderson.

What the total cost was of providing legal aid to asylum seekers in the last year.

Expenditure data for asylum seekers across all legal aid schemes is not held centrally.The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) does, however, publish information regarding legal aid expenditure as part of its official statistics on a quarterly basis, including the cost of legal aid provided in respect of asylum matters funded as Controlled Work. That information can be found at column G of table 5.3. Controlled Work covers the provision of legal advice regarding asylum matters and representation before the First Tier (Immigration and Asylum) Tribunal. The LAA also publishes information about the cost of Legal Representation pertaining to immigration and asylum matters (see tables 6.5 and 6.7).

If she will overrule changes to sentencing guidance which will place greater emphasis on pre-sentence reports.

The Sentencing Council has issued new guidance which the last Government was consulted on between November 2023 and February 2024, and then publicly welcomed.The Lord Chancellor has been clear that these guidelines do not represent this government’s views, and she asked the Council to reconsider them.The Lord Chancellor and the Chairman of the Sentencing Council have since had a constructive discussion. It was agreed that the Lord Chancellor will set out her position more fully in writing, which the Sentencing Council will then consider before the guideline is due to come into effect

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) reviewing and (b) changing the probation guidelines to prevent convicted paedophiles from living within a certain perimeter of a school or park.

The decision as to where to permit a convicted child sex offender to live whilst subject to licensed supervision is made by the Probation and Probation Services working together under MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements).Additionally, offenders subject to licensed supervision may be prohibited from entering specified geographical locations (exclusion zones) on account of the particular risks which those offenders present. A child sex offender might, for example, be prohibited from entering a specified area around a school or nursery. Exclusion zones may be reinforced in certain cases by satellite tracking, to ensure that any offender who enters an exclusion zone without permission faces being recalled immediately to custody.The data required to answer PQs 33564 and 33565 are not collated centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a ban on convicted paedophiles living within a five-mile radius of a school of park.

The decision as to where to permit a convicted child sex offender to live whilst subject to licensed supervision is made by the Probation and Probation Services working together under MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements).Additionally, offenders subject to licensed supervision may be prohibited from entering specified geographical locations (exclusion zones) on account of the particular risks which those offenders present. A child sex offender might, for example, be prohibited from entering a specified area around a school or nursery. Exclusion zones may be reinforced in certain cases by satellite tracking, to ensure that any offender who enters an exclusion zone without permission faces being recalled immediately to custody.The data required to answer PQs 33564 and 33565 are not collated centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

If she will make an estimate of the number of convicted paedophiles that upon the end of their sentence have lived within five miles of a school or park in each of the last five years.

The decision as to where to permit a convicted child sex offender to live whilst subject to licensed supervision is made by the Probation and Probation Services working together under MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements).Additionally, offenders subject to licensed supervision may be prohibited from entering specified geographical locations (exclusion zones) on account of the particular risks which those offenders present. A child sex offender might, for example, be prohibited from entering a specified area around a school or nursery. Exclusion zones may be reinforced in certain cases by satellite tracking, to ensure that any offender who enters an exclusion zone without permission faces being recalled immediately to custody.The data required to answer PQs 33564 and 33565 are not collated centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

If she will make an estimate of the number of convicted paedophiles that upon the end of their sentence have lived within one mile of a school or park in each of the last five years.

The decision as to where to permit a convicted child sex offender to live whilst subject to licensed supervision is made by the Probation and Probation Services working together under MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements).Additionally, offenders subject to licensed supervision may be prohibited from entering specified geographical locations (exclusion zones) on account of the particular risks which those offenders present. A child sex offender might, for example, be prohibited from entering a specified area around a school or nursery. Exclusion zones may be reinforced in certain cases by satellite tracking, to ensure that any offender who enters an exclusion zone without permission faces being recalled immediately to custody.The data required to answer PQs 33564 and 33565 are not collated centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

What assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the roll out of the early prison release scheme.

SDS40 is a necessary measure to avoid the collapse of the Criminal Justice System. In designing the measure, we took every possible step to mitigate risk including an 8-week implementation period, clear offence exclusions, and a huge amount of collaborati...

What plans her Department has to inform victims of the early release of prisoners.

Victims and survivors who are eligible for and have opted into either the Probation Service’s Victim Contact Scheme or Victim Notification Scheme are provided with updates about an offender who perpetrated crime(s) against them, including when these offen...

How many foreign-born criminals (a) are in prison and (b) were released under the revised terms of the early release scheme since 10 September 2024 in (i) Ashfield constituency and (ii) Nottinghamshire.

Information on the number of Foreign Nationals in prisons can be found in Table 1_Q_11 here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66a1167cce1fd0da7b592c8d/Prison-population-30-June-2024.ods. Data on SDS40 releases at the local level forms a subs...

What steps her Department is taking to tackle physical violence between prisoners in prisons.

Reducing violence in prisons remains a key priority. We are working hard to make prisons as safe as possible and are continuing our efforts to address the levels of violence in prisons. We have completed our landmark £100 million Security Investment Progr...