Prisons: Children of Prisoners

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Tuesday 30th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

The noble Baroness is completely right, in that short sentences for men or women are a significant factor in family breakdown. The Lord Chancellor has made it very clear that he wants to see the number of short-term sentences decline. That of course depends on the independent judiciary and the sentences that they hand out, but there is lots that the Government can do. We are ensuring that the National Probation Service pre-sentencing report includes information on dependants. If that information is in the pre-sentencing report, the judge sees it and can then use it as a mitigating factor in the sentence that gets handed down. Furthermore, we are rolling out an excellent piece of work by Dr Shona Minson, Safeguarding Children when Sentencing Mothers. That is important work and we need to get that message out there, but at the end of the day it will be up to our independent judiciary to hand down sentences.

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

My Lords, it is estimated that over 200,000 children are affected by parental imprisonment across the UK. We do not know the actual number because neither the courts nor local services routinely ask them. These children are left in the shadows, their needs often forgotten, with devastating impacts. Despite their situation, they are locked out of the support that they need to get a better chance in life. Will the Minister heed Barnardo’s call for the Government to appoint a lead Minister to oblige the courts to ask about the children of people being sent to prison and ensure that adequate childcare and support arrangements are in place?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton]

My Lords, this is a very complicated area. The noble Baroness is not quite right: we do encourage courts to ask defendants, whether they are male or female, whether they have dependent children. What happens is that some mothers, in particular, fear that their child might then be taken into care, and they may well have made their own informal arrangements for that child and therefore think, “Actually, I’m not disclosing that I have children”. It is therefore very difficult for us to pick up that information.

The noble Baroness mentioned Barnardo’s. I pay tribute to the work that it has done on the National Information Centre on Children of Offenders, a comprehensive website that was launched in May this year so that all government agencies, both nationally and locally, can find out best practice and work out the diverse needs of these very vulnerable children.