Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Deferred
Remand prisoners face lengthy custody with limited options due to court backlogs
Conclusion
It is right that the remand population should not be mandated to participate in the regime, as they have not been found guilty. However, due to the length of time remand prisoners are in custody for due to the court backlogs, it is not right that they are spending their time languishing with limited options available to them. (Conclusion, Paragraph 103)
Government Response Summary
The government's response focuses on ensuring equivalent healthcare access for prisoners, detailing existing agreements, digital system upgrades, and plans to publish healthcare data by April 2026, rather than addressing the broader issue of providing more options for remand prisoners beyond healthcare.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
122. As with recommendation 24, we are committed to ensuring that people in prison have access to an equivalent standard, range and quality of health care in prisons to that available in the wider community. This is reflected in the National Partnership Agreement on Health and Social Care in England, published in February 2023. 123. The recently published Chief Medical Officer Report agreed and highlights that Health data are essential for safe, high-quality care, research, surveillance and planning of health services inside and outside prison. The report notes that there are also many IT systems that sit across multiple government departments and organisations relevant to healthcare and many of these systems cannot communicate with one another. 124. NHSE is undertaking a re-procurement of the current Integrated Clinical Digital systems early in 2026, this will include requirements for interoperability with criminal justice systems, as well as other community health systems such as NDTMS to ensure we are able to capture a transparent picture of access to health care and patient outcomes. 125. Additionally, HMPPS 2025/26 regime priorities set out that prison regimes should ensure that they drive overall improvement in health and wellbeing provision. HMPPS are exploring opportunities to better capture data on healthcare attendance and ensuring that individual’s healthcare needs are appropriately prioritised. 126. NHS England will work in partnership with HMPPS to provide the Committee with an update on our plans to publish new health care access and outcomes data by April 2026.