Victoria Atkins: The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will prioritise those who have assisted UK efforts in Afghanistan and stood up for UK values such as democracy, women’s rights, freedom of speech and rule of law; and vulnerable people such as women and girls at risk, and members of minority groups (including ethnic / religious minorities and LGBT+). Representations from Members of Parliament...
Victoria Atkins: For those coming through both the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) and the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), once granted Indefinite Leave to Remain, beneficiaries over the age of 19 have immediate access to funding through the Department for Education’s Adult Education budget including English For Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses. As part of Operation...
Victoria Atkins: The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6th January. The ACRS will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK. We are not giving a running commentary on statistics of those in the scheme due to the continuing flow of people being welcomed. We will include this data within published resettlement statistics later...
Victoria Atkins: The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is working with departments including the Home Office to support people relocated to the UK, to integrate into UK society. Please see my Dear Colleague letter of 23 December 2021 outlining our support and my statement to the House on 6 January 2022, to be found here: Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme - Hansard - UK Parliament.
Victoria Atkins: The project is currently funded to complete deployment to 15 prisons; 9 of which have already been done and 6 to be completed during 2022.
Victoria Atkins: Prisoners have access on their laptops to transactional services which provides self service capability, such as menu and canteen ordering, e-mail a prisoner and topping up pin-phone credit, as well as Content Hub, which is software developed in-house by one of our MoJ Digital and Technology teams. This provides secure access to a tightly controlled selection of digital services and includes...
Victoria Atkins: Approximately 4,900 prisoners have access to in cell laptops over nine establishments which includes four Youth Custody Service sites. Currently a further six establishments are planned to be given access to laptops during 2022 which equates to approximately 4,200 prisoners.
Victoria Atkins: The Department publishes statistics concerning deaths in prison custody in England and Wales in the quarterly Safety in Custody statistics. Data on deaths in custody from 2019 onwards, broken down by establishment, is available in section 1.13 of the Deaths in Custody 1978-2021 table, in addition to quarterly bulletins outlining trends at: Safety in custody: quarterly update to September 2021...
Victoria Atkins: We hope to be able to publish the commissioned national evaluation of the OPD pathway, led by Professor Moran, once it has completed progressing through standard MoJ/HMPPS clearance and publication procedures.
Victoria Atkins: Separation Centres (SCs) were introduced in 2017 with the addition of Rule 46A to the Prison Rules (1999). There are currently three SCs, with two in operation. Each SC began housing prisoners in the same month that it opened. HMP Frankland’s SC opened in June 2017 and remains operational. It has capacity for 8 prisoners. HMP Full Sutton’s SC opened in March 2018 and closed again in...
Victoria Atkins: We value our hardworking prison staff and offer access to medical professionals and an employee assistance programme to ensure continued physical and mental wellbeing. The policy and rules that set the pension age for Prison Officers under the Civil Service Pension Scheme is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office and responsibility is not devolved down to HMPPS. I meet the Prison...
Victoria Atkins: The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6th January. The ACRS will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK. British Nationals are being supported outside the ACRS. We will include this data within published resettlement statistics later in 2022.
Victoria Atkins: The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6 January 2022 and will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK. Anyone resettled under the ACRS will receive Indefinite Leave to Remain. The ACRS policy statement can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/afghan-citizens-resettlement-sch eme
Victoria Atkins: Rape and sexual violence are devastating crimes that can have life-long impacts on victims and survivors. This Government is committed to ensuring that every victim of rape and sexual assault will have access to quality support, appropriate to their needs, when they need it. This includes an increase to spending £185m per year on victim and witness services by 2025. As part of this funding...
Victoria Atkins: The government is committed to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour that blight so many communities. In 2021/22, the Ministry of Justice is providing up to £82 million funding for local authorities’ youth offending teams in England and Wales, which have primary responsibility for managing children released from custody. This is an increase of 9% on 2020/21 funding. Her Majesty’s...
Victoria Atkins: We rolled out the ASPECTS training programme in 2017 to help prison staff identify, report, and manage terrorist behaviour in prisons. a) As of 10 December 2021, 15,585 Band 2-5 members of operational staff had received ASPECTS training. The cumulative total of all attendees at an ASPECTS training session since 2017 is 45,437. However, this figure includes those who have since left the...
Victoria Atkins: We are building on the landmark Domestic Abuse Act to improve victims services, to ensure that victims can secure justice in our courts and to pursue perpetrators ruthlessly. Victim support funding is rising to £185 million by 2024/25, including increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors to more than 1000 and we are extending the time limit for prosecuting...
Victoria Atkins: We are building on the landmark Domestic Abuse Act to improve victims services, to ensure that victims can secure justice in our courts and to pursue perpetrators ruthlessly. Victim support funding is rising to £185 million by 2024/25, including increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors to more than 1000 and we are extending the time limit for prosecuting...
Victoria Atkins: We are building on the landmark Domestic Abuse Act to improve victims services, to ensure that victims can secure justice in our courts and to pursue perpetrators ruthlessly. Victim support funding is rising to £185 million by 2024/25, including increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors to more than 1000 and we are extending the time limit for prosecuting...
Victoria Atkins: As of 30 September 2021, the number of female veterans1 subject to community based court orders2 and probation supervision was as follows: Sentence type Total All court orders2 11 All probation supervision 15 1. Veteran status can include individuals who have served in foreign Armed Forces as well as UK Armed Service Personnel and those who were in the Territorial Army/reserve....