Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many of the sexual assaults in women's prisons since 2016 recorded in the Safety in Custody statistics published on 30 April were carried out by transgender prisoners.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
There were 97 sexual assaults in female establishments between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2019 and 7 of these assaults involved a transgender prisoner. Of those, 6 were assaults where a transgender individual was identified as the assailant or suspected assailant. One incident was recorded as a transgender prisoner having ‘active involvement’, which means they did not necessarily start the assault.
These figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Although the figures are shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.
All sexual assaults in prison are referred to the police and HMPPS have strong safeguards in place to manage risks to all those in custody, regardless of their gender. HMPPS has robust processes in place to care for and manage transgender individuals in custody. The safety of all those in our care is of paramount importance. All known risks, both towards or presented by a transgender person in prison, will always be taken into account in their care and management. Individuals will be cared for and managed in the gender with which they identify, regardless of their location in a male or female prison.