There is mounting evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. We remain committed to ensuring that all parties are held to account for their actions. Investigators from the International Criminal Court and the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine are investigating all allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The UK is supporting both independent investigations, financially and through capacity building programmes. The UK, the US and the EU established the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group to provide practical and financial support to the War Crimes Unit of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

The UK routinely calls for full compliance with International Humanitarian Law, including granting humanitarian access to prisoners of war and civilian detainees. As set out in the Third Geneva Convention, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has the mandate to go wherever prisoners of war and civilian detainees are held and monitor their conditions of detention, their treatment, and share news with their families. ICRC has an ongoing confidential dialogue with Russia and Ukraine on this matter.

The UK consistently calls for Russia to comply fully with International Humanitarian Law, and the need to respect and protect medical personnel in all circumstances. Humanitarian organisations must be given full, safe and unhindered access to populations in need of assistance. No one should be punished for or prevented from providing essential medical treatment. In our public communications and statements we draw attention to Russia's actions in Ukraine, including arbitrary detentions of civilians. In March, the UK led a joint statement on behalf of 40 countries, which called on Russia to release everyone detained in contravention of international law.

The Ministry of Justice publishes a breakdown of the prison population by length of sentence as part of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly.

The information requested can be found in the table attached.

As our public forecast sets out, we expect the prison population to rise over the coming years.

We are implementing a suite of measures to ensure we have sufficient prison capacity both in the immediate and the longer term. We are delivering 20,000 additional, modern prison places, the largest prison build programme since the Victorian era. This will ensure the right conditions are in place to rehabilitate prisoners, helping to cut crime and protect the public.

As of end of April, we have already delivered around. 3,400 of these additional places, including through the brand-new prison, HMP Five Wells, which opened last year. In addition, HMP Fosse Way will open this year, and construction is well underway on our newest prison HMP Millsike - bringing over 3,000 new prison places between them by 2025. We are undertaking major refurbishments at sites including HMP Birmingham, HMP Liverpool and HMP Norwich, delivering around 800 cells between them. Construction has started on new houseblocks at HMP Stocken, HMP Hatfield, HMP Sudbury and HMP Rye Hill which will add an estimated 850 places between them.

It is for State Parties to the Council of Europe Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to authorise publication of reports from the Committee on the Prevention of torture (the Committee). The UK hopes that Turkey, in line with its good practice of usually allowing publication, permits the Committee to publish the report of its September 2022 visit.

The following tables show the rates of self-harm, assault and self-inflicted deaths in prisons.

For deaths the rate covers 12 monthly data to March for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. For self-harm and assaults this covers 9 months for April to December (latest available) for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Table 1; Rate of self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 prisoners, England and Wales¹, April 2019 to March 2023

(1) Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts, but exclude incidents at Medway STC

(2) All classifications of deaths remain provisional until confirmed at inquest.

Data Sources and Quality

These figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquest or as new information emerges, numbers may change from time to time.

Table 2; Rate of self-harm and assault incidents per 1,000 prisoners^1,2, England and Wales, April 2019 to December 2022³

(1) Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts, but exclude incidents at Medway STC.

(2) Figures exclude incidents occurring within the youth estate. The youth estate includes incidents occurring within Cookham Wood, Werrington and Wetherby, as well as the youth wing at Feltham and Parc. Figures for incidents occurring within the youth estate are published within the ‘Safety in the children and young people secure estate’ statistics bulletin via the following link - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/safety-in-the-youth-secure-estate-bulletin

(3) The rates are based on the number of incidents and average prison population for the 9 months from April to December each year.

(4) In prisons, as in the community, it is not possible to count self-harm incidents with absolute accuracy. In prison custody, however, such incidents are more likely to be detected and counted. Care needs to be taken when comparing figures shown here with other sources where data may be less complete.

Data Sources and Quality

These figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing returns but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level.

NHS England has a mandated responsibility to support the equivalence of healthcare across the detained estate. Since 2013, a number of measures have been introduced to ensure this equivalence. This includes people in contact with the justice system being a part of the CORE20+5 initiative to reduce health inequalities, as well as identifying areas for service improvement across the detained estate.

In 2020, NHS England and the Ministry of Justice introduced the Inclusive Workforce Programme, which has been designed to support regional commissioners with recruitment and retention across the health and justice workforce. This included a national benchmarking exercise to ensure that actions taken by the regions and services are informed by data and included the development of career and competence frameworks for all roles within prison healthcare, including online courses introducing people to the career options available in this setting.

The Inclusive Workforce Programme has recently undertaken a range of online events to promote and help address a range of recruitment and retention issues. There is also currently a marketing campaign being developed, under the larger ‘We are the NHS’ recruitment campaign, targeting student nurses to encourage them into prison healthcare services. There is ongoing work by Health and Justice commissioners to support retention of staff with all providers as well as market engagement to generate quality provider and staff capacity across England.

Ensuring the health and well-being of those in its care is a key priority of His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS). Prisons are required to ensure that arrangements are in place for an appropriate member of staff to engage with the next of kin, or a nominated person, of prisoners who are seriously ill.

Families who have concerns about a prisoner’s health or well-being are encouraged to contact the prison via the establishment’s safer custody hotline. A separate number is also provided in cases of emergency.

During 2023-24, HMPPS is providing a grant to the Prison Advice and Care Trust to work with prisons across England and Wales to improve their communication with prisoners’ families on issues relating to the safety and wellbeing of prisoners. This will include introducing more consistent processes for recording, responding to and acting on concerns raised by family members.

Ensuring the health and well-being of those in its care is a key priority of His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS). Prisons are required to ensure that arrangements are in place for an appropriate member of staff to engage with the next of kin, or a nominated person, of prisoners who are seriously ill.

Families who have concerns about a prisoner’s health or well-being are encouraged to contact the prison via the establishment’s safer custody hotline. A separate number is also provided in cases of emergency.

During 2023-24, HMPPS is providing a grant to the Prison Advice and Care Trust to work with prisons across England and Wales to improve their communication with prisoners’ families on issues relating to the safety and wellbeing of prisoners. This will include introducing more consistent processes for recording, responding to and acting on concerns raised by family members.

The NHS in England and Wales are responsible for health services within prisons, including physical and mental health provision. These services have now returned to business as usual with the full range of services that were provided pre-pandemic being offered. Prisons continue to work closely with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Health Protection Teams to respond to communicable disease incidents and outbreaks which occur and protect the health of everyone who lives and works in them.

Together with health and justice partners, we will continue to improve services in prison to ensure that people have access to timely and effective healthcare that is tailored to their needs. This is reflected in the new National Partnership Agreement on Health and Social Care in England which was published on 23 February 2023. For the first time, the National Partnership Agreement has been expanded to include offenders in the community, delivering on our commitment to improve continuity of care and champion a system wide approach. The new agreement sets out a shared priority workplan to deliver safe, decent and effective care that improves physical and mental health outcomes for people in prison and those subject to statutory supervision by the probation service in the community. The Ministry of Justice, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and the UKHSA have committed to working together and sharing accountability for delivery through our linked governance structures.

The Government is committed to the protection of the public and the effective management of offenders. Prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, both those serving life and Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), who have completed their tariff will be released only when the Parole Board concludes that it is no longer necessary on the grounds of public protection for them to remain confined. Where the Parole Board decide not to release the prisoner, the prisoner’s suitability for release must be considered at least every two years thereafter.

In line with the Justice Select Committee’s report into the continued existence of the IPP sentence, the Government committed to update and refresh the HM Prison and Probation Service’s IPP Action Plan, to which may be attributed the very significant numbers of IPP prisoners released for the first time in each year since 2016. The Action Plan already mandates a formal case review led by HMPPS Psychology Services for every IPP prisoner who has spent five years in prison following tariff expiry and has never been released.

The Action Plan remains the embodiment of the Government’s aim to reduce the total IPP prisoner population – that is the combined figure of those who have never been released and those returned to prison following recall. Specifically, by way of response to the Committee’s assertion that offenders serving an IPP sentence on licence in the community are being recalled unnecessarily, the Government has requested that the Chief Inspector of Probation carry out an independent thematic inspection on the proportionality of recall decisions made. In cases where ‘other’ is listed as a reason for recall, there is always at least one additional, specific reason as recorded in the published recall statistics.

No prisons are routinely operating a 23 hour per day or similar lockdown and I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to question HL3355 on 29 November 2022.

Maintaining safety continues to be a priority, and where regimes are limited, we continue to prioritise the implementation of key safety interventions. This includes our case management approaches to manage the risk of self-harm and suicide (Assessment, Care in Custody, and Teamwork) and of violent behaviour (Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan), and the delivery of key work, through which prison officers provide one-to-one support for prisoners.

As a signatory to the National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare, the Department of Health and Social Care is committed to working with the Ministry of Justice, HM Prison and Probation Service, NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to ensure safe, legal, decent and effective care which improves health outcomes and reduces health inequalities for prisoners.

As of October 2022, 96% of new arrivals in the adult custodial estate, excluding Immigration Removal Centres and short-term holding facilities, received an initial health screening and 83% received a further health assessment within seven days.

The Home Office has worked with the Ministry of Justice in assessing the impact on the prison population as a result of the new and amended offences in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, with a likely increase in the mid hundreds. Prosecutions are just one of a range of measures seeking to reduce the number of migrants placing their lives into the hands of people smugglers and taking unnecessary risks to travel to the UK.

It is the Government's long-established position that when someone commits a crime, which is sufficiently serious to receive a prison sentence, they are deemed to have broken their contract with society to such an extent that they should not have the right to vote until they are ready to be back in the community. We have maintained that position for all elections that fall within the UK Parliament's competence.

This position was clearly set out in the Government's 2019 manifesto, which stated: 'We will maintain the ban on prisoners voting from jail'.

Liaison and diversion services operate at police stations and criminal courts to identify and assess people with vulnerabilities, such as substance misuse and mental ill-health and refer them to appropriate services and where appropriate, away from the justice system. The assessments assist magistrates and judges in sentencing decisions. We are also working with health and justice partners to increase the use of community sentence treatment requirements to reduce reoffending and custodial sentences by offering drug or alcohol treatment as part of a community sentence.

Voluntary organisations and groups representing those with lived experience are regularly consulted by NHS England on decisions relating to offender health policy and have participated in developing policy on liaison and diversion services and Community Sentence Treatment Requirements.

As part of our human rights work in Egypt, we focus on lobbying to end pre-trial detention and improving prison conditions in Egypt. On human rights more broadly, the Foreign Secretary raised human rights in her first meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry in New York on 20 September. Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, James Cleverly, also raised human rights with Foreign Minister Shoukry and met human rights activists during his recent visit to Cairo. We welcome Egypt's new human rights strategy.

During visits to Armenia and Azerbaijan in February the Minister for the European Neighbourhood and the Americas urged both parties to work with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to expedite the return of all prisoners of war. Through the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and bilateral engagement in Baku and Yerevan, UK officials continue to urge the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities to prioritise this issue, alongside other unresolved issues following hostilities last year.

The total number of staff in Public Sector and Youth Custody Prisons who have declared that they have received their first COVID-19 vaccination, as at midday 21 May 2021, was 10,612. The total number of staff in Public Sector and Youth Custody Prisons who have declared that they have received their second COVID-19 vaccination, as at midday 21 May 2021, was 2,508.

For prisoners in England as at the end of 14 May 2021, the total number who had received their first COVID-19 vaccination was 25,655. The total number of prisoners of all ages who had received their second COVID-19 vaccination was 8,485.

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service strongly encourages all staff and prisoners who are offered the Covid-19 vaccine, to take it. We ask employees to let us know when they have had each dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by recording their vaccine status on our HR system. As the disclosure of their vaccine status is entirely voluntary, it means the self-declaration rates presented below will be lower than the actual number of staff who have been vaccinated. However, the data collected to date is still valuable in understanding staff vaccination take up and coverage.

We are acutely aware of the impact of the restrictions on family visits, and we have had to make some difficult decisions to protect both prisoners and staff. As of 20 May, 107 establishments have commenced delivery of Stage 3 of the National Framework for Prisons which allows for the delivery of social visits with social distancing and face coverings. We are also working with Public Health England and Public Health Wales to look at how we can take safe and incremental steps to improve the experience of such visits. As part of this work we are piloting lateral flow testing for visitors.