Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Deferred
Paragraph: 133
Establish mechanisms for collecting reliable data on prison use as 'place of safety'.
Conclusion
It is disappointing that data gathering on this issue is so poor, such that it is not possible to estimate the number of people affected across the prison estate. The Ministry of Justice should put in place mechanisms for the collection of reliable data on the use of custody as a place of safety or for a person’s own protection for all cohorts of prisoners (male, female and youth).
Government response summary AI-generated
The government accepted the recommendation but responded by stating it has completed 25 out of 31 of Lord Farmer’s recommendations on family relationships and will publish a progress update by the end of 2022, which is unrelated to collecting data on custody as a place of safety.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
133
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
We do not accept this recommendation. A cross-agency group, established by MoJ, carried out extensive work to explore potential data sources to better understand the circumstances in which these powers are used. The group concluded that there is no robust source of data or proxy measures which can provide an accurate, complete picture of the issue. It would not be practical to introduce mechanisms to start collecting this data now, when our focus is moving to implementing reforms which will prevent the use of custody as a place of safety or for a person’s own protection, where the court’s sole concern is the defendant’s mental health.
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