Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Parental Imprisonment

Tuesday 22 November 2022 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Kerry McCarthy asked the Minister to take steps to estimate the number of children affected by parental imprisonment.
  • The Minister agreed that understanding the number of children affected by parental imprisonment is important.
  • Kerry McCarthy highlighted the potential impact on hundreds of thousands of children over the years, emphasizing the traumatic effects.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Kerry McCarthy Lab Bristol East
Justice & Courts Children & Families
Context

The question stems from concerns about the long-term effects of parental imprisonment on children and the need for data to understand these impacts.

Question

If he will take steps with prisons to estimate the number of children affected by parental imprisonment.

Answer from Damian Hinds

Yes, I certainly will. I agree about the effects that parental imprisonment has, and I certainly agree that it is important to understand the number of children this affects.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide specific steps or timeline for estimating the number of affected children.

How: Agreed In Principle But Did Not Commit To Concrete Actions

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Q2 Kerry McCarthy Lab Bristol East
Justice & Courts Children & Families
Context

Building on previous discussions, the MP emphasizes the necessity of accurate data to address hundreds of thousands of potentially affected children, highlighting trauma and risk factors.

Question

I thank the Minister for that response. I have previously had meetings with former Justice Ministers, Children's Ministers and so on. We absolutely need this data because we think there could be hundreds of thousands of children affected over the years. Not only is it really traumatic for them, but it puts them at risk themselves. Once we have the data, we can look at support services, but may I urge him to do what he can to work with prisons, schools and local authorities to try to make sure there is a comprehensive database?

Answer from Damian Hinds

I agree. I have spoken to one of my predecessor Ministers—my hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins)—about the conversation she had with the hon. Lady. I was also reading with interest the hon. Lady's speech in Westminster Hall the other day, and about the work of the charity Children Heard and Seen. She is absolutely right that the first step and the basis has to be the data, and there is important work under way, including changes to the basic custody screening process, and then the big cross-Government project called “Better Outcomes through Linked Data”, and we will continue to work hard on that.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not commit to working specifically with prisons, schools, and local authorities for comprehensive data collection.

How: Acknowledged Ongoing Projects But Did Not Specify Involvement In Mentioned Organisations

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