The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answers on 19th January 2026:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government how many and what proportion of (1) men, and (2) women, arriving in custody have self-declared as part of the basic custody screening interview that they have been in the care of local authority children’s services, in each year since 2016.
Lord Timpson (Lab, MoJ): The information requested is set out in the table below. This table provides only a count of Basic Custody Screenings where care experience was disclosed and does not provide this as a proportion of all BCSs completed over the time period so caution should be applied when considering trends –
| Years | Number of BCS “Cared For” Entries 1 | Number of BCS “Cared For” Entries 1 |
| Men | Women | |
| 2016-17 | 8706 | 1709 |
| 2017-18 | 7723 | 1149 |
| 2018-19 | 7844 | 1369 |
| 2019-20 | 7688 | 1262 |
| 2020-21 | 3963 | 773 |
| 2021-22 | 3468 | 878 |
| 2022-23 | 3387 | 1000 |
| 2023-24 | 4079 | 1109 |
| 2024-25 | 5035 | 1513 |
Note:
- The figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the level of detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system.
Basic Custody Screening data does not provide a full picture of the number of prisoners disclosing care experience each year, as it does not include data for prisoners who choose to disclose care experience at later points during their time in custody.
We know that people taken into care as children are disproportionately likely to end up in the criminal justice system, with research estimating that 24-31 per cent of the adult prison population spent time in care as children.
We are committed to addressing this disproportionality in England and Wales, both by improving support for people with care experience while in the criminal justice system, and by working with colleagues across government to reduce the number of people with care experience who enter the criminal justice system. As part of this, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) plans to publish a new ‘Supporting Prisoners with Care Experience’ policy framework in spring 2026.
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government how many people of each (1) ethnic group, and (2) religion, were in prison as of 30 September 2025.
Lord Timpson: The information requested is routinely published in H M Prison & Probation Service’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication. It is set out in the attached tables. 20 Monday 19 January 2026 Written Answers The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The Answer includes the following attached material: PQ_HL13461_table [2026-01-26 PQ HL13461 table.xlsx] The material can be viewed online at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2026-01-12/HL1346
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government how many and what proportion of prisoner leavers were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm between April 2024 and March 2025.
Lord Timpson: 24,264 prisoner leavers released between April 2024 and March 2025 were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm at the point of release between April 2024 and March 2025. This is 42% of all releases. Public protection is this Government’s top priority. Offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions – including exclusion zones, restriction zones and electronic monitoring – and they can be returned to prison if they breach any of these rules, in such a way as to demonstrate that their risk is no longer manageable in the community.
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government how much it costs per minute to make a call from (1) a prison wing payphone, and (2) an in-cell phone, to (a) a landline, and (b) a mobile phone, at (i) weekdays and (ii) weekends.
Lord Timpson: Calls from prison wing payphones and in-cell phones are charged at the same national rates. Calls to UK landlines:
• 2.48 pence per minute during the week midnight Sunday to midday Friday
• 2.20 pence per minute during the weekend midday Friday to midnight Sunday
Calls to UK Mobiles
• 5.50 pence per minute during the week Sunday to midday Friday
• 3.60 pence per minute during the weekend midday Friday to midnight Sunday
The Ministry of Justice has reduced call rates in the public prison estate by negotiating a 20% reduction to all UK landline and UK mobile numbers. These rates have applied since 1 April 2025 and support the Department’s commitment to maintaining family contact.
Source: Ministry of Justice letter to the Justice Committee, July 2025: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/48682/documents/255236/default
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked His Majesty’s Government what proportion of women reoffended on average who had served (1) any custodial sentence, and (2) a custodial sentence of less than 12 months, between April 2022 and March 2023.
Lord Timpson: The proven reoffending rate for women released from custody between April 2022 and March 2023 was 46.0%. The proven reoffending rate for women released from custodial sentences of less than 12 months between April 2022 and March 2023 was 64.1%.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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