Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department plans to spend on (a) assessments, (b) referrals and (c) support for (i) offenders and (ii) victims who are affected by harmful gambling in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This information is not held centrally.
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of persons arrested by the police. No national estimate has been made. Probation staff assess individual needs and can assist with referrals to local or national services to address gambling or to access debt counselling services where appropriate. In custody, all prisoners are seen by NHS healthcare on reception and can be referred to addiction services to help address problem gambling.
HMPPS are also working with NHS and other partners to better understand the evidence around gambling addiction. This will inform a more joined up, cross system approach to effective support and recovery.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) prisoners and (b) offenders on probation affected by harmful gambling are receiving (i) treatment and (ii) other support during their sentence.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This information is not held centrally.
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of persons arrested by the police. No national estimate has been made. Probation staff assess individual needs and can assist with referrals to local or national services to address gambling or to access debt counselling services where appropriate. In custody, all prisoners are seen by NHS healthcare on reception and can be referred to addiction services to help address problem gambling.
HMPPS are also working with NHS and other partners to better understand the evidence around gambling addiction. This will inform a more joined up, cross system approach to effective support and recovery.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) persons arrested by the police (b) prisoners and (c) offenders on probation who are affected by harmful gambling.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This information is not held centrally.
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of persons arrested by the police. No national estimate has been made. Probation staff assess individual needs and can assist with referrals to local or national services to address gambling or to access debt counselling services where appropriate. In custody, all prisoners are seen by NHS healthcare on reception and can be referred to addiction services to help address problem gambling.
HMPPS are also working with NHS and other partners to better understand the evidence around gambling addiction. This will inform a more joined up, cross system approach to effective support and recovery.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to reduce the number of (a) pregnant women and (b) mothers of babies under the age of two who are sent to prison.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Our Female Offender Strategy makes clear that we want fewer women entering custody and more being managed in the community.
We have developed an aide memoire to support probation practitioners completing pre-sentence reports (PSRs) on women. It is designed to improve the quality and consistency of PSRs, by highlighting key areas for practitioners to consider when assessing the diverse needs of women in the context of offending (including health, relationships and caring responsibilities), in order to support a robust proposal for a community sentence whenever appropriate.
Sentencing and remand decisions in individual cases are entirely a matter for the courts, which are independent of Government. The Sentencing Council, which is also independent, has provided guidance to sentencers on the factors to be taken into account when sentencing female offenders, including pregnancy, and being the sole or primary carer for dependent relatives. In relation to an offender who is pregnant, relevant considerations may include any effect of the sentence on the health of the offender and any effect on the unborn child. The guidance makes clear that where an offender is at the threshold of custody, imprisonment should not be imposed if the impact on dependents would be disproportionate.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has taken recent steps to ensure that women who become pregnant while awaiting court or sentencing have their pregnancy considered as a mitigating factor.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Our Female Offender Strategy makes clear that we want fewer women entering custody and more being managed in the community.
We have developed an aide memoire to support probation practitioners completing pre-sentence reports (PSRs) on women. It is designed to improve the quality and consistency of PSRs, by highlighting key areas for practitioners to consider when assessing the diverse needs of women in the context of offending (including health, relationships and caring responsibilities), in order to support a robust proposal for a community sentence whenever appropriate.
Sentencing and remand decisions in individual cases are entirely a matter for the courts, which are independent of Government. The Sentencing Council, which is also independent, has provided guidance to sentencers on the factors to be taken into account when sentencing female offenders, including pregnancy, and being the sole or primary carer for dependent relatives. In relation to an offender who is pregnant, relevant considerations may include any effect of the sentence on the health of the offender and any effect on the unborn child. The guidance makes clear that where an offender is at the threshold of custody, imprisonment should not be imposed if the impact on dependents would be disproportionate.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the National Review of Health and Social Care in Women’s Prisons will cover women’s sexual and reproductive healthcare in the prison system.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The National Women’s Prisons Health and Social Care Review, commissioned jointly by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and NHS England, is due to report in Spring 2023. The scope of the review includes women’s sexual and reproductive healthcare in prison.
Following a policy review, we began collecting information on the number of babies born to women in the prison estate in 2020-21. National data on pregnancy and births, and on Mother and Baby Units, are now published annually in the HMPPS Annual Digest.
Data on the number of women who are pregnant or who are mothers of babies under two years old who have entered the prison system on remand is not collected or held centrally. Information on prisoners’ caring responsibilities and children living in the community is monitored locally by prison Governors and Directors, to ensure appropriate support can be provided to offenders and their families.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the number of (a) pregnant women and (b) mothers of babies under two years old who have entered the prison system on remand in the last year.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The National Women’s Prisons Health and Social Care Review, commissioned jointly by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and NHS England, is due to report in Spring 2023. The scope of the review includes women’s sexual and reproductive healthcare in prison.
Following a policy review, we began collecting information on the number of babies born to women in the prison estate in 2020-21. National data on pregnancy and births, and on Mother and Baby Units, are now published annually in the HMPPS Annual Digest.
Data on the number of women who are pregnant or who are mothers of babies under two years old who have entered the prison system on remand is not collected or held centrally. Information on prisoners’ caring responsibilities and children living in the community is monitored locally by prison Governors and Directors, to ensure appropriate support can be provided to offenders and their families.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the timetable is for the publication of the report on the National Review of Health and Social Care in Women’s Prisons.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The National Women’s Prisons Health and Social Care Review, commissioned jointly by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and NHS England, is due to report in Spring 2023. The scope of the review includes women’s sexual and reproductive healthcare in prison.
Following a policy review, we began collecting information on the number of babies born to women in the prison estate in 2020-21. National data on pregnancy and births, and on Mother and Baby Units, are now published annually in the HMPPS Annual Digest.
Data on the number of women who are pregnant or who are mothers of babies under two years old who have entered the prison system on remand is not collected or held centrally. Information on prisoners’ caring responsibilities and children living in the community is monitored locally by prison Governors and Directors, to ensure appropriate support can be provided to offenders and their families.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average sentence length was for (a) women and (b) men sentenced to prison in each month since January 2021.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Ministry of Justice publishes these figures on an annual basis, by quarter, on the GOV.UK website in the Outcomes by Offence data tool (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 21 MB) as part of the Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2021 publication published in May 2022. Figures for 2022 will be published in subsequent releases of the data.
Please see the accompanying table, and associated notes, for a breakdown by month for the year 2021. These figures are not routinely published as monthly averages can be influenced by cyclical factors that need to be considered when considering average custodial sentence length (ACSL) – for example, ACSL will depend on the mixture of offences sentenced within that month. Monthly averages will also be more likely to fluctuations due to relatively small volumes of offenders in each period.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will set a numerical target for the commitment in the Female Offenders Strategy on reducing the number of women entering prison.
Answered by Rob Butler
We remain committed to the aims in the Female Offender Strategy (2018) of seeing fewer women offending and reoffending; fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences, with more managed effectively in the community; and better conditions for women in custody that support effective rehabilitation.
As we have an independent judiciary, setting a numerical target as proposed is not appropriate and may have unintended consequences. We are working to ensure that interventions and pilot projects are, where possible, evaluated so that we can understand their impact on the numbers and make-up of the population.