Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to publish their strategy for female offenders in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We are committed to doing all we can to address the issues around female offending so we can better protect the public and deliver more effective rehabilitation.
Considering how we can best address the needs of female offenders, to improve outcomes for them, their families and their communities, is a complex issue that we want to get right.
We are developing a strategy for female offenders to improve outcomes for women in the community and custody. This will be published in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children in England and Wales have had a parent in prison in the last seven years.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The government is committed to supporting prisoners to establish or maintain relationships with their families and significant others where appropriate. My Noble Friend, Lord Farmer, published his report in August, produced on behalf of the Government, which we have warmly welcomed. Work has already commenced on taking forward some of the important recommendations from this review.
The Ministry of Justice does not collect data on the number of children who have a parent in prison. An MoJ longitudinal study of adult prisoners estimated that there were around 200,000 children who had a parent in prison at some point during 2009.
In 2015, MoJ published estimates of the proportions of adult female offenders in 2012 who had one or more dependent children in their care at the time of their disposal. This analysis estimated that between 13-19% of women serving an immediate custodial sentence had at least one dependent child in their care. On average, this group of women had 1.8 children each.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of promoting the use of community-based sentences as a first option for offences that presently require custodial sentences, in order to ensure that mothers are not separated from their children.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
It is important that there are robust community options available to sentencers so that vulnerable women with complex needs, including those with children, are only sent to prison when it is absolutely necessary.
We are developing a strategy for female offenders to improve outcomes for women in custody and in the community. As part of this work we are already investing £1 million seed funding between 2016 and 2020 to help local areas develop improved, multi-agency approaches to support female offenders in their area.
Sentences in individual cases are decided by the courts, who take into account guidelines issued by the independent Sentencing Council.
In February 2017, the Council issued its guideline “Imposition of Community and Custodial and Sentences”, which makes it clear that prison should be reserved for the most serious offences, and that custody should not be imposed where a community order could provide sufficient restriction on an offender’s liberty (by way of punishment) while addressing the rehabilitation of the offender to prevent future crime. The guideline also notes that for offenders on the cusp of custody, imprisonment should not be imposed where there would be an impact on dependants which would make a custodial sentence disproportionate to achieving the aims of sentencing.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consultations they have conducted in preparation for their strategy on female offenders to ensure that the criminal justice system creates an environment which promotes the reunification of imprisoned mothers with their children; and what assessment they have made of the impact, both short and long term, of such imprisonment on children living in care.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We are developing the Female Offender Strategy in consultation with a wide range of stakeholders. We issued a Call for Evidence in March 2017 and regularly consult with key stakeholders through our Advisory Board on Female Offenders, which is chaired by the Minister with responsibility for female offenders. The Minister has met with a number of organisations to discuss a wide range of issues pertinent to female offenders, including the imprisonment of mothers and the impact on their children.
The Department for Education has not made any formal assessment of the impact of parental imprisonment in children living in care, but the Government has funded a contract worth over £1.4m for Barnardo’s to operate the i-HOP service – an England wide one-stop information service for all professionals who come into contact with the children and families of offenders – to share evidence on practice and advise commissioners and practitioners on the options available to support the families of offenders.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to audit the training given to teachers on how to administer adrenaline and handle severe allergic reactions in children.
Answered by Lord Nash
We know how important it is that children with allergies and other medical conditions are supported to enjoy a full education. That is why we introduced a new duty to require governing bodies to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions, and have provided statutory guidance outlining schools’ responsibilities in this area.
To provide specific support for pupils with allergies, we are working with the Department of Health to develop new guidance on the use of adrenaline auto-injectors in schools. This follows the recent publication of the Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2017, which allow schools to hold spare adrenaline auto injectors, without a prescription, for use in emergencies. The revised regulations will come into effect on 1 October 2017.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that schools (1) are aware of, and (2) adhere to, the provisions of the Children and Families Act 2014 which places a duty of care on schools to ensure that children with health needs are safe and not excluded during the time they spend in school and on school activities.
Answered by Lord Nash
We know how important it is that children with medical conditions are supported to enjoy a full education, including having full access to school activities. That is why we introduced the provisions in the Children and Families Act 2014 to require governing bodies to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions, and have provided statutory guidance outlining schools’ responsibilities in this area.
We continue to work with Ofsted and other organisations, such as the Health Conditions in Schools Alliance, to help raise awareness of the duty and to ensure that schools are meeting their responsibilities.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what tuition is given to undergraduate medical students in England and Wales on the subject of allergies and associated conditions.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department does not hold this information.
It is the responsibility of the General Medical Council (GMC) to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricula to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care.
Higher education institutions are responsible for ensuring the programmes they provide allow medical students to meet the outcomes set out by the GMC upon graduation.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the length of time that patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria wait between initial diagnosis and referral to a specialist in England.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The information requested is not held centrally and no assessment has been made.
Asked by: Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of women remanded in custody are subsequently convicted and receive an immediate custodial sentence in (1) each magistrates' court, and (2) each Crown Court, in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The decision to sentence a person to a custodial sentence, or to remand a person into custody prior to trial or sentencing, is a matter for the independent judiciary and courts will take into account all the circumstances of the offence and the offender in determining this. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 introduced a new “no real prospect” test which means that people should be released on bail if it is unlikely that they would receive a custodial sentence on conviction. Sentencing guidelines also make clear that if an offender is the sole or primary carer for dependent relatives then this should be considered a mitigating factor for avoiding a custodial sentence.
We are committed to making sure sentencers have robust community options at their disposal. Companies bidding for contracts under our Transforming Rehabilitation reforms will be expected to demonstrate in their bids an effective approach to the identification and recognition of women's needs, as well as protected characteristics, to make sure that individual needs are properly addressed, and they will be held to account to deliver these services in their contracts. We have recently introduced Section 10 of the Offender Rehabilitation Act which requires contracts and service level agreements with all future providers for the supervision and rehabilitation of offenders to identify which services are designed to meet the particular needs of female offenders.
We are also working through the Female Offenders Advisory Board to improve options for Enhanced Community Provision and will be raising awareness of this to criminal justice system practitioners.
Table 1 shows the proportion of female defendants remanded in custody at magistrates' courts and subsequently given immediate custody, broken down by local justice area in England and Wales in 2013.
Table 2 shows the proportion of female defendants remanded in custody at the Crown Court and subsequently given immediate custody, broken down by Crown Court centre in England and Wales in 2013.