I have today introduced the Prisons and Courts Bill, which will create a new statutory framework to support the Government’s plans to make prisons places of safety and reform. The measures in the Bill are a vital part of the wider structural reforms announced in the Prison Safety and Reform white paper published on 3 November 2016.

The right framework and standards for improvement

In the white paper we committed to reforming how the prison system is structured in order to make lines of accountability clear and create sharper and more transparent scrutiny.

To deliver this, the Prisons and Courts Bill will enshrine in statute the purpose of prison, setting out for the first time that reform of offenders is a key aim for prisons. The Bill makes clear how the Secretary of State for Justice will account to Parliament for progress in reforming offenders.

The Bill also provides strengthened powers to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, including enabling the Chief Inspector to trigger an urgent response from the Secretary of State where they have significant concerns about a particular prison that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. It puts the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman on a statutory footing, giving them greater permanence and powers.

The white paper set out how this new framework will be underpinned by new standards, a new commissioning structure and new powers for governors. This will create a more focused prison system where governors are clear what they need to deliver and are empowered to do so.

To deliver this, we will create new, 3 year performance agreements signed by the Secretary of State and the governor of each prison. The agreements will be phased in over the next two years: the first third of prisons will sign the new agreements on 1 April, with the other two thirds moving to this approach by 1 April 2019. The agreements will include the following standards, based on the aims for prisons set out in the Bill, which governors will be held to account for:

• Protecting the public. We will do this by measuring, from April 2017:

–The number of escapes from closed prisons;

–The number of absconds from open prisons; and

–Compliance with key security processes such as searching.

• Reforming offenders. We will do this by measuring:

–Time spent out of cell, starting from April 2017 in the prisons where the technology to track this has been introduced;

–Progress made in getting offenders off drugs. Prisoners will be tested on entry and exit with a phased roll out beginning in 2017;

–Progress made in health, starting with a measure of medical appointments attended by prisoners starting in England from April 2017;

–Progress made in maths and English, starting with qualifications gained from April 2017 and introducing testing on entry and exit in the longer term; and

–Progress in maintaining or developing family relationships. This will be a new measure which we are currently developing.

• Preparing prisoners for life on release. We will do this by measuring, from April 2017:

–Rate of prisoners being released to suitable accommodation;

–Rates of sustainable employment, including apprenticeships, and education in the period following release.

• Improving safety. We will do this by measuring, from April 2017:

–Assaults on prison staff and prisoners;

–Disorder and self-harm; and

–Staff and prisoner perceptions of safety.

We want the public to understand what progress is being made in our prisons, so we will publish data setting out how prisons are performing. We will collect the data from April 2017 and begin publishing official statistics regularly from October 2017.

To support delivery of these reforms on the ground, on 1 April we are creating a new, operationally-focused executive agency, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, which will be responsible for all operations across prison and probation and will refocus headquarters on supporting, not micro-managing, governors. The Secretary of State will set standards, commission services, and hold them to account.

Empowering governors to deliver

If we are to hold governors to account for meeting this new standards, they must be given the power to deliver change. We are devolving key operational policies to give governors greater flexibility, and have already cancelled 101 policies to help reduce bureaucracy for prisons. We will also remove current restrictions so that from 1 April 2017, governors have the freedom to:

• Design their regime to meet local delivery needs and target training and work in prisons to match the local labour market. Prisoners could, for example, work shift patterns to deliver new commercial contracts. This would help them to meet the standards to reform offenders and prepare prisoners for life on release.
• Decide their workforce strategy, including their staffing structure, to support meeting the standards. They could bring in specialists to work with particular types of prisoners, and tailor their staffing to support the prison regime they have designed.
• Control how they spend their resource budget. They could choose, for example, to pay for increased dedicated police officer time to reduce criminal activity in prison to improve safety and protect the public.
• Plan and take decisions about health services jointly with local health commissioners, through a co-commissioning framework.

Over the coming months, we will build on these essential freedoms even further by giving governors additional scope to:

• Decide what education opportunities they offer. Over 2017 and 2018, we will give governors control of the education budget, so that they can overhaul education and training to match the skills and qualifications prisoners need in the local labour market.
• Control how family support services work. From autumn 2017, governors will control budgets for family services, like visitors’ centres and parenting skills classes, so they can choose the right way to support family relationships.
• Have more say on the goods and services in their prison. As each national contract ends, for example on food or equipment, we will determine how to devolve responsibility to governors.

This process of devolution and deregulation is being supported by learning from the work of the six reform prisons. These prisons will continue to explore and identify options for devolution across the estate as wider reforms are implemented. We have commissioned a formal evaluation to support this with regular feedback being provided to inform policy development ahead of the final report in early 2018.

These reforms are major changes that will result in sustained improvement over a decade. By the end of this Parliament this strategy will have delivered much needed new facilities, empowered governors and introduced modern technology to improve regimes, support reform and combat security threats.

Experts from DBS within the MOD are to attend the Who Do You Think You Are live event at the NEC, Birmingham, between the 6 and 8 April. The show, a spin off from the popular BBC1 TV series, “Who Do You Think You Are?”, attracts over 12,000 visitors during the 3 days as it focuses on genealogy. The stand, supported by TNT UK Ltd, will be staffed by a DBS team from the Medals and Records Offices and will offer.

Displays of medals and service records

Medals and records advice, including identification of medals, entitlements, applying for medals and how to find out more, what records the MOD holds and how to access them.

Live post 1921 service record search facility.

The MOD continues to hold all service records where the individual had a discharge date of post 1921, these total around 10 million records, with about 500,000 having seen service in World War 1. Using a sophisticated database that supports the MOD’s main archive, an assisted search facility will in many cases enable confirmation of whether or not the MOD holds a record for an individual. This information can then be used to apply for the record using the forms on gov.uk. To assist the search some or all of the following information is required: surname, initials, date of birth and service number.

Interpretation of service records

If you already have a service record, but are unsure what it says or how to interpret it, then DBS experts will be on hand to assist you.

• John Reynolds from the MOD’s record office; a keen army historian and serving reserves officer, John has conducted battlefield tours across the world
• Stuart Hadaway from the air historical branch; Stuart has previously worked at the RAF Museum, Hendon, and is the author of military books, including “Missing believed killed: casualty policy and the missing research and enquiry service 1939 – 1952”
• Sue Pass and Clive Clarke from TNT’s navy search service; Sue and Clive have a combined 17 years of experience working in the TNT’s navy search service, responding to more than 6000 enquiries a year

Issue of veterans badges

If you are ex-forces and haven’t yet got a veterans badge, then you can ask for one on the stand. Following confirmation of a service record identification and a check of the veterans badge database, the veterans badge will be issued. The following information will be required, surname, initials, date of birth and service number.

The DBS team look forward to seeing you!

23 February 2017

Keith Taylor MEP: “Today’s report is an important reminder that campaigners have been right all along; Heathrow expansion is still a climate-wrecking decision that is bad for the British people and the planet.”

The Government is still not able to demonstrate that it can mitigate the destructive environmental impacts of a new runway at Heathrow, according to a report published today by the Environmental Audit Committee.

The report on Heathrow expansion reveals the Government is still failing to take into account major concerns about the air pollution, carbon emissions and noise pollution effects of expansion.

Responding to the findings Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South East and a member of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, argued that the report was further proof that ‘Heathrow expansion is an unnecessary environmental disaster in waiting’.

Mr Taylor, a vocal anti-airport expansion activist who has written about the legal difficulties a third runway will face, said:

“Today’s report is an important reminder that campaigners have been right all along; Heathrow expansion is still a climate-wrecking decision that is bad for the British people and the planet.”

“The report reveals that the Government has paid little consideration to the triple threat of unacceptable environmental risks the prospect of a new runway brings with it, from air pollution to carbon emissions and noise pollution.”

“A new runway will breach legal air pollution limits and further worsen an air quality crisis that the Government is already failing to tackle. And there is still no answer forthcoming on any plan to reduce current levels of air pollution which are responsible for the unnecessary deaths of 50,000 people in Britain every year.”

“Expansion will bust Britain’s carbon budgets and make a mockery of Theresa May’s legal-binding commitments under the Paris Agreement. Astonishingly, the Government’s response appears to be its willingness to water down already dangerously-lax limits on aviation emissions, despite the recommendations of its own advisors.”

“Thousands of local residents will be appalled to read today’s report only to discover that not only will a third runway ensure the air they breathe is about to get more toxic but the Government has no plans to tackle the cacophony of noise pollution that expansion promises.”

“There are no two ways about it; expansion is a disastrous decision for the people of the South East, London, Britain, and the planet. Britain’s ‘airport capacity crisis’ is, and always has been, a dangerous myth driven by corporate greed, not by actual need. Not only is all but one airport in the UK operating under capacity, sponsoring the exponential growth of an aviation industry that is a top-ten global polluter is wholly incompatible with Britain’s Paris climate agreement commitments.”

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