Clinks Policy Briefing | November 2024

Welcome to the November 2024 edition of the Clinks Policy Briefing. Let us know your thoughts about this newsletter, or any of the things it has covered by emailing the Policy team.

This month:

Our Policy Work including our State of the Sector research, upcoming ministerial meetings, and the work of the Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Board (RR3).
Latest Justice News including the announcement of the Sentencing Review, the Chancellor's Budget, further prison capacity measures, changes to magistrates' sentencing powers, changes to IPP sentences, the latest justice statistics, an independent review into girls in custody, and news on the role of Victims' Commissioner.
Parliamentary News including debates on IPP sentences and the contribution of the voluntary sector to UK society, an oral question on the early release programme, and upcoming debates on the Mental Health Bill and a private members' bill on re-sentencing people serving IPP sentences.
Sector Insights including responses to the Sentencing Review announcement, publications on IPP sentences, a range of articles and publications on youth justice, statistics on prison early release schemes, data on probation including licence recalls and unpaid work, a resource for parents in prison, the latest Justice Data Lab reports, data on Welsh speakers in the criminal justice system, blogs on prison education, data on criminal records, and a report on the treatment of racially minoritised police officers going through Metropolitan Police misconduct processes.
Get Involved including a consultation from HM Inspectorate of Probation on their areas of work next year, an inquiry from the Public Accounts Committee on prison estate capacity, and events from Transform Justice, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Charities and Volunteering and NCVO, and the Physical and Mental Health of Older Prisoners Project.

The focus groups to gather evidence for this year's State of the Sector research are now underway. We would like to thank everyone who has registered their interest in participating and those who have already been part of a focus group. If you are still interested in participating in a focus group, you can register your interest using this form.

Recently, much of our advocacy work has focussed on the ongoing challenges around prison vetting and the Dynamic Purchasing System, that many members have raised with us. Clinks Chief Executive Officer, Anne Fox has published a blog, providing an update on these important issues, which was subsequently updated at the end of October with further developments.

This month, we have also been busy preparing for upcoming meetings with the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, and the Sentencing Minister, Sir Nic Dakin. When meeting the Lord Chancellor, Anne will be highlighting the sector's priorities, that were collated in the run up to the General Election.

In its election manifesto, Labour committed to improving the purposeful activity that was available to people in prison. To support work to make these improvements, Clinks is planning a roundtable with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to explore purposeful activity, to be held in the first week of December. We will share further information about the plans in this area, following the event.

In addition, we are assembling a voluntary sector advisory group to help review the proposed National Framework for Peer Mentoring. This group will first meet at the end of November, and continue to meet regularly until the publication of the framework, anticipated in the summer of 2025.

The Reducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Board (RR3) is creating a new Policy Sub-group on Race. This will meet for the first time in January, and focus on the recently announced Independent Sentencing Review (see 'Latest Justice News' for more information on the Review itself).

In addition, the minutes from the latest meeting of the RR3 have now been published on our website.

The Independent Sentencing Review

On 21 October, the Government announced an independent review into sentencing, following on from its manifesto commitment. This review will be chaired by the former Conservative Lord Chancellor David Gauke. The Review aims to ensure a sustainable criminal justice system, and is due to submit its findings to the Government by Spring 2025.

The Review will have three core principles:

Ensuring that ‘prison sentences punish serious offenders and protect the public’ and that there is always space in prison for ‘the most dangerous offenders’
Looking at what more can be done around rehabilitation and keeping the public safe by reducing reoffending
Exploring ‘tougher punishments outside of prison’ to ensure community sentences reduce crime whilst making the best use of public money.

In its announcement, the Government said the Review would look at ‘tough alternatives’ to prison, such as technology that could put people ‘in a “prison outside prison”’ and compelling people to do ‘hard work’ in the community. It will also consider whether more can be done to ‘tackle prolific offending’.

Following this announcement, Clinks Chief Executive, Anne Fox, set out some initial thoughts on the review in a blog. Here, she outlines that Clinks will consult widely with the sector to inform our response to the review, and highlighting all the voluntary sector has to offer. She concludes by saying, 'now is the time for evidence-led solutions to fix the ongoing prisons crisis, and to ensure that we have a criminal justice system that is fair, effective and fit for purpose.'

Autumn Budget 2024

On 30 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, set out the new Government's first Budget, following the General Election. This set out the budget for the MoJ for 2025-26, along with the budgets of other government departments. It also set out a number of other measures likely to impact the voluntary sector working in criminal justice. These included:

Increases to employers' National Insurance Contributions (NICs)
Increases to the minimum wage
Inflation-based increases to working age benefits
A change to Universal Credit to reduce the amount a household's payment can be deducted as debt repayments.

Following the Chancellor's announcement about the increases to employers' NICs, NCVO has estimated that this will lead to £1.4 billion of increased costs to the voluntary sector each year. With charities already being in challenging financial situations, something we have seen for many years in our own State of the Sector research, NCVO have said this decision to increase NICs for the sector 'and not create an exemption, will be another major strain on their limited resources'.

As such, together with ACEVO, NCVO have co-ordinated an open letter calling for urgent action to be taken on this planned change, for the voluntary sector. This was signed by 7,361 voluntary organisations.

HDC Expansion, Risk Assessed Recall Review and Increasing Focus on Deportations

On 22 October, the Lord Chancellor gave a statement to the House of Commons on the Sentencing Review. As part of this, she also announced three additional prison capacity measures.

Home Detention Curfew (HDC) will be expanded so the maximum time someone can be on HDC will be up to 12 months, up from six months
The risk assessed recall review process will be reviewed so lower-risk cases can be considered for re-release after they have been recalled to prison for two to three months, and where their future imprisonment is no longer necessary to protect the public
Ways to accelerate the deportations of people who are foreign nationals and have been sentenced to custody will be explored, including working with the Home Office to make the existing early removal scheme more effective.

Magistrates' Now Able to Sentence People to up to One Year in Prison

On 17 October, the Lord Chancellor announced that magistrates would have their sentencing powers expanded to enable them to sentence people to up to one year in prison. In announcing this measure in the House of Commons, the Lord Chancellor said this it was intended to address the remand population, which is a specific and acute cause of the current capacity crisis.

The Lord Chancellor said that, because people on remand have to be held in category B prisons, it is causing particularly acute pressures in reception prisons. The Government intends that expanding magistrates' sentencing powers will mean more cases can be heard in magistrates' courts, enabling the Crown Court to hear more complex cases. Whilst it anticipates that this change will lead to a slight increase in the overall prison population, by reducing the remand population, it will enable better management of the total prison population.

The statutory instrument (SI) to make this change has now been laid in both Houses of Parliament, subject to the made negative procedure. This means that it will come into effect on 18 November, unless one House passes a motion against the SI. The previous Government also increased magistrates' sentencing powers in this way between May 2022 and March 2023.

Changes to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) Sentences

Changes to IPP sentences have begun, with the Government confirming that on 1 November 2024, reforms meant that people in IPP sentences who were released from prison at least five years ago but who have not been sent back to prison in the last two years, will have their licences automatically ended.

Further changes will be made to IPP sentences from 1 February 2025, with the eligibility period for the Parole Board to consider ending licences being reduced to three years, from the current 10.

With the changes to IPP sentences now being phased in, the Howard League for Penal Reform have launched an IPP Licence Termination Hotline. People are able to call this hotline for confidential legal advice on the changes being brought in by the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, until 18 December 2024. The hotline is available on Mondays from 1700 to 1900, and Wednesdays from 1300 to 1500.

Latest Quarterly Criminal Justice Statistics

The MoJ published statistics covering people in the criminal justice system, safety in custody and the children and young people’s secure estate (CYPSE), and proven reoffending.

There were 86,966 people in prison on 30 September 2024. There were 317 deaths in custody in the year to September 2024, a 4% increase from last year. The number of self-harm incidents in prison rose 19% in the year to June 2024, with the rate of self-harm incidents per 1,000 people decreasing 7% in female establishments and increasing 20% in male establishments. The annualised rate of self-harm per 100 children in the CYPSE increased by 61% in the quarter to June 2024 compared to the same quarter last year, standing at 560.9 incidents per 100 children and young people per year. The proven reoffending rate for the October to December 2022 cohort was 26.4%.

Independent Review into Girls in Custody

The Youth Justice Board announced that the Minister for Youth Justice has commissioned its Board Member, Susannah Hancock, to lead an independent review into the placement of girls in custody. The review will consider the current placement options and care for girls in the youth estate, and make recommendations on the most effective placement options. It will also recommend resources and support required so that staff are best equipped to meet girls' needs. The Review is due to report back in three months.

Extension to Baroness Newlove's Term as Victims' Commissioner

The Government announced that is has extended Baroness Newlove's term as the Victims' Commissioner, meaning it will now come to end on 31 December 2025. This follows Baroness Newlove originally being appointed to the role without competition for a year, on 17 October 2023. The role will be re-advertised later in 2024 with new criteria, to reflect the Government's vision for a strengthened role.

Recent Business

Many of the recent measures announced by the Government relating to prisons and courts, have been announced with ministerial statements, giving MPs and peers the opportunity to ask questions of ministers about the decisions they are taking. In addition to these major announcements, there has been some other business related to criminal justice over the last month.

Early in October, the Labour MP, Grahame Morris, who represents Easington, tabled an Early Day Motion, calling for the rules to be changed to allow prison officers to be able to take industrial action. These early day motions do not get debated in the Commons, but they provide MPs an opportunity to show their support or opposition for issues. This motion has received support from a total of 30 MPs, including from the Labour Party, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, and a number if independents.

On 28 October, Bambos Charalombous, Labour MP for Southgate and Wood Green, led a debate in Westminster Hall on imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences. Debates in Westminster Hall are held on a neutral motion, which means no particular view or decision is reached, but they do receive a response from a Government Minister. Sir Nic Dakin, the Sentencing Minister, said the Government is determined to give those people serving IPP sentences who are still in prison 'the support and opportunities they need to make further progress towards a safe, sustainable release', and for those serving IPP sentences in the community, he said 'an end to their sentence is now within their grasp'.

Over in the House of Lords, on 21 October, the Conservative Peer Lord Sandhurst asked an oral question about the steps that are being taken to prevent people who have been released from prison under the early release scheme from reoffending. Following Lord Sandhurst's initial question, other peers asked further questions on this topic.

In addition, at the end of October, Labour peer Baroness Morgan of Drefelin led a general debate in the House of Lords on the contribution of the community and voluntary sector across the UK.

Upcoming Business

On Friday 15 November, Lord Woodley, a Labour Peer, is looking to bring forward a private members' bill on the re-sentencing of people subject to IPP sentences. As this is not a Government Bill, there is no guarantee that it will receive enough time to be debated, or that it will be able to pass all the necessary stages to become law.

On Monday 25 November, the House of Lords will debate the Mental Health Bill at second reading. This is where peers will debate the general principles of the Bill. If the Bill passes this stage, it will progress to committee stage, where peers will review the Bill line by line. Amongst other provisions, this Bill seems to remove police stations and prisons as defined places of safety, to ensure that people experiencing mental health crisis or with severe mental health needs are supported in an appropriate setting; and it introduces a new 28-day time limit for transfers from prison and other places of detention to hospital for people in the criminal justice system or immigration detention with severe mental health needs.

The next session of Justice Questions will be held in the House of Commons on Tuesday 10 December. This provides an opportunity for MPs to put questions to ministers in the Department on all aspects of its work.

Sentencing

With the announcement of the Sentencing Review, there have been a number of recent publications focussing on sentencing policy. The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies published a blog that looks at some of the measures in Texas that have been referenced by the Government recently, and whether those measures have been accurately portrayed.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has published a webpage that looks at sentence inflation, the drivers behind it, the impact it is having, and what should be done instead. It argues that emphasis should be moved from the length of a sentence, towards what is being done whilst someone is serving their sentence.

Following the announcement of the Sentencing Review, Together Women's CEO, Rokaiya Khan, issued a statement, calling for 'bold, transformative change'. She called for and end to the remand of women and the abolition of short custodial sentences for them, significant investment in women's centres, radical reform for women with caring responsibilities, and the prioritisation of physical and mental health.

HM Inspectorate of Probation also issued a statement after the announcement of the Sentencing Review. In it, HM Chief Inspector of Probation said they believe that 'the review represents a unique opportunity to deliver a more effective system, resulting in better use of resources, lower reoffending rates, fewer victims and safer communities'. The Chief Inspector goes on to share their initial thoughts on several areas including the use of community orders and sentence lengths; increasing the use of deferred sentences; the length of licence periods; recalls; and better support in the community.

IPP sentences have continued to receive attention recently, especially with the recent debate in Parliament and Lord Woodley's forthcoming private members' bill (see more on these above in 'Parliamentary News'). The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies published a blog that calls for renewed action in IPP sentences following Labour's first 100 days in government. The Centre also published a parliamentary briefing for MPs and peers on IPP sentences, ahead of this activity in Parliament. This follows a briefing from the House of Commons Library looking these sentences, ahead of the changes to licence termination arrangements being phased in from 1 November 2024.

Youth Justice

The Howard League for Penal Reform published a blog on decline in young offender institutions (YOIs), following recent HM Inspectorate of Prisons reports on children in custody. The blog notes that the Inspectorate has made 85 recommendations or concerns about time out of cell in the last 10 years, but less than a quarter have been achieved, arguing that we must now acknowledge that prisons cannot safely hold or care for children.

With the new Oasis Restore secure school now beginning to operate, the Youth Justice Board's (YJB) Chief Executive, Steph Roberts-Bibby, has published an article reflecting on her visit to the school. Ms Roberts-Bibby said that as she looked round the site, 'what stood out to [her] was an unmistakeable feeling of care'.

As part of Black History Month in October, the Alliance for Youth Justice's (AYJ) CEO, Jess Mullen, published a blog that highlights that voluntary and community organisations, led by and for racially minoritised people, are essential partners to youth justice services in supporting children to fulfil their potential.

At the end of October, the YJB published a report by Revolving Doors, looking at good and promising practice that address racial disparity in the youth justice system. The report aims to outline ways to influence and improve practice across the sector. It sets out case study examples of local practice to tackle racial disparity and over-representation in the youth justice system. The YJB commissioned the report wit the aim of these examples being shared nationally, and for change across the youth justice system to be promoted as good practice from one area becoming adopted and adapted in other areas.

Then, at the start of November, the YJB published its anti-racism statement, setting out its 'unwavering commitment to address racism in the youth justice system and [its] commitment to staff to be an anti-racist organisation'.

The MoJ published data on the number of children supported by the Turnaround Programme. This is a programme providing up to £56 million multi-year grant funding to Youth Offending Teams across England and Wales. This notes that 18,520 children were referred into the programme in its first year, with 6,990 children proceeding to the intervention stage of the programme. Of these, 94% either completed their interventions, or they were still ongoing as of 31 December 2023.

Families

Nepacs published a resource aiming to support parents in prison who wished to sustain their relationship with their children who are in in the care of the local authority, the care of family or significant others, or adopted, and provide legal advice and support around their rights as parents. A book was created to support people in custody understand their parental rights, and how they may be impacted by being in custody. It offers information and instruction on how to manage common contact issues experienced by people in prison.

Reoffending

The Justice Data Lab gives organisations working with people in contact with the criminal justice system access to central reoffending data, in order to help them assess the impact of their work on reducing reoffending. The most recent release of reports sees a second analysis published for Brighton Women's Centre, reports published on Together Women and Offploy, and a feasibility study released on evaluating Circles of Support and Accountability.

The Data Lab found that for Together Women and Offploy, the people who took part in the respective organisations' programmes saw positive, statistically significant results. However, for Brighton Women's Centre, the overall results did not show the programme having a statistically significant effect on a women's reoffending behaviour, despite there being a reduction in offending after interventions were delivered. Findings from the feasibility study for Circles of Support and Accountability demonstrate that an impact evaluation is feasible, and it was recommended that the evaluation proceed.

Prisons

Following the announcement of the Sentencing Review, the MoJ published the data used to inform the figure given by the Lord Chancellor that 500 prison places have been added to prison capacity between 2010 and 2024. This is based on the difference between the operational capacity in May 2020 and April 2024.

The Government's new early release programme, often referred to as SDS40, is now in full effect. This replaces the previous End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) scheme, which enabled people to be released from prison several weeks early. The MoJ and HMPPS have now published detailed data on the previous ECSL scheme. This shows that a total of 13,325 releases were made under the scheme, peaking in May 2024, with 2,372 people released early. Half of the people released on the scheme had an effective sentence length of less than 12 months, and 14% had a determinate sentence of 4 years or more.

In addition, the MoJ and HMPPS also published data on the two tranches of releases under its SDS40 programme. This notes that 1,889 people were released as part of the first trance on 10 September 2024, and 1,223 people were released as part of the second tranche on 22 October 2024.

Probation

The MoJ released more ad hoc data, this time looking at the proportion of people on licence recalled to prison in June 2024. Using data from the MoJ's Prison-NOMIS and Delius administrative datasets, it found that 3,112 people were recalled in June 2024, of a total licence caseload of 47,753, meaning the proxy proportion of licence recalls for the month was 6.52%.

Other data published by the MoJ in October looked at Unpaid Work, also known as community payback. This release presents information on the delivery of unpaid work from April 2022 to June 2024.

Wales

The Ministry of Justice published an ad hoc data release, giving statistics on the number of Welsh speaking people in prison across England and Wales, and the number of Welsh speaking people on probation in Wales, between 2020 and 2023. Based on self-declared preference, there were 410 Welsh speaking people in prison in Welsh public sector prisons in 2022 (the most recent complete year for which data was available), and a further 119 Welsh speakers in public sector prisons in England. In the same year, there were 2 Welsh speaking women in prison across the women's estate, and 145 Welsh speakers on probation in Wales.

Education

Jon Collins, Chief Executive of the Prisoners' Education Trust (PET), wrote a guest blog for Russell Webster looking at the 2023-24 official statistics, and the missed opportunities they highlighted on prison education. He calls for additional funding to be made available with the delay in the new education contracts, and highlights the 10 recommendations PET have previously published.

PET also published their own blog, from their Lived Experience Co-ordinator, Collins Adesoji. In this piece, Mr Adesoji sets out his story, and the experience he had with prison education, distance learning courses funded by PET, and attending university through release on temporary licence (ROTL).

Criminal Records

In a further statistical release, the MoJ published data on the number of working-age people who have a record on the Police National Computer (PNC). The PNC is a database used by law enforcement agencies, managed by the Home Office. Based on the data extracts, the MoJ estimated that about one-in-four working age people in the UK have a criminal record.

Policing

The Criminal Justice Alliance have worked together with the National Black Police Officers Association to produce a joint briefing that examines the treatment of Black and racially minoritised police officers in the Metropolitan Police's misconduct processes. This follows the Casey Review, published in 2023. The briefing highlights that, despite the Metropolitan Police's commitments to reform, systemic racial discrimination persists, with a culture of bullying, exclusion, and a lack of meaningful support within the institution.

Inquiries and Consultations

HM Inspectorate of Probation are currently running a consultation into their proposed topics for thematic inspections and research for 2025-26. They are seeking views on their proposals in a short consultation, open until 22 November 2024.

The Public Accounts Committee is running an inquiry into prison estate capacity, and is currently accepting written evidence. The National Audit Office is currently producing a report on increasing the capacity of the prison estate, and the Committee will use that report as they take oral evidence from senior MoJ and HMPPS officials on topics including work to increase long-term capacity, and long-term strategy to deliver a prison estate that is fit for the future.

Events

Transform Justice are holding a free online event on Wednesday 13 November 2024, from 1230 to 1330. This aims to be a practical webinar on how to identify missed opportunities to resolve crimes without going to court. Speakers include Professor Eddie Kane from the University of Nottingham and Institute of Mental Health, who will talk through a new case audit guide for police forces, and Jonathan Ley, who will discuss Make Time Count’s research quantifying how many court cases could be appropriately diverted.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Charities and Volunteering will be holding its first meeting of the new parliament, exploring how a new agreement between public bodies and charities can support this vital relationship. The in-person meeting will take place in Portcullis House in the Palace of Westminster, from 1500 until 1700 on Wednesday 20 November, and it is free to attend. NCVO provide the secretariat to this group.

The Physical and Mental Health of Older Prisoners (PAMHOP) project had a overall aim to co-produce a toolkit for older people in prison with physical and common mental-health disorders. This has led to the publication of two practical guidance toolkits, one for women and one for men. PAMHOP are holding a hybrid dissemination event on Wednesday 27 November 2024, from 1015 to 1500. To book a place, please follow the instructions on the PAMHOP webpage, depending on whether you are planning to attend in person or online.

Clinks Events and Training

On Thursday 14 November 2024, Clinks is running a training session on working and volunteering in prisons. The session will run from 1000 to 1300, and costs £95 for members or £150 for non-members. The training sessions aims to raise awareness of the prison environment and provide information on key aspects such as staffing structures and departments, prison procedures, and current challenges associated with working in prisons.

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This month's edition was written by...

Clinks Specialist Policy Officer, Franklin Barrington

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