Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women were known to be pregnant while on remand or serving a sentence in HMP Eastwood Park in each quarter from 31 March 2015 to 30 September 2020 (a) in total and (b) by ethnicity.
Answered by Alex Chalk
Prior to July 2020 pregnancy data was collected locally by individual prisons, we are in the process of retrieving data from the establishment and quality assuring the information requested. As soon as verified data is available, I will write to the Honourable Member.
As of last summer, internal national data collection processes have been in place to enable us to plan for future publication. In July 2020 we published a summary report of our review of operational policy on pregnancy and women separated from children under 2. This included an undertaking to extend the range of data we publish in relation to pregnant women in prison, and can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/905559/summary-report-of-review-of-policy-on-mbu.pdf
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the update posted on www.gov.uk on 23 February 2021, what steps he is taking to allow prison visits to resume.
Answered by Alex Chalk
Social visits to prisons are currently suspended given the risks from Covid-19 and the need to minimise non-essential travel at this time. We continue to support social visits in compassionate circumstances, including visits to children in custody.
In line with the community position, over the coming weeks and months we will support establishments to ease some of the restrictions currently in place, guided by public health advice and as it becomes safe to do so. To support the delivery of greater regime activity, significant additional measures have been put in place to reduce the risk of Covid-19 as much as possible. The mitigations we have introduced mean that we are now much better prepared for managing Covid-19 in prisons.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2021 to Questions 151640, 151641, 151642, 151643 and 152427 on Residential Women's Centres (RWC), whether it is his policy that RWCs will be for women sentenced to a community sentence with time in a RWC as an additional requirement or for women being resettled after a prison sentence.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The residential women’s centre (RWC) will be for women sentenced to a community order or suspended sentence order with a residence requirement to reside at the RWC.
The RWC will provide holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the evidential basis is for residential women’s centres leading to a reduction in the level of crime.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Female Offender Strategy (2018) set out the ambition to see fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences. We know that many women at risk of short custodial sentences have particularly complex needs and prolific offending histories compared to women supervised in the community. Our Strategy therefore committed to developing a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales, as a robust alternative to custody, providing safe accommodation and intensive rehabilitative support as part of a community sentence.
Learning from existing providers of intensive residential support options, both at the point of sentencing and on release, indicates that this form of provision is effective in reducing reoffending. The RWC pilot will enable us to test models of safe accommodation and holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending, and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
On 5 May 2020 we announced that the first RWC will be located in Wales. Subsequently we have advised the Welsh Government, local MPs, PCCs and other partners that we have shortlisted sites in South Wales, and we anticipate one of those sites could be a potential location for the first pilot RWC. As yet we have not identified sites for the four RWCs in England.
We anticipate that each RWC will have 12 beds. RWCs will also provide support, very similar to that offered by a women’s centre, with interventions to support women address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. We anticipate it will offer interventions to meet the needs of residents, ex-residents and women in the local community who have been referred to the RWC by their offender manager.
We expect the RWCs will work with key partners and providers of women-specific services in their local area and draw on the expertise of those who currently work with women with complex needs and women with lived experience. The RWC will be led by the NPS but will employ women with experience of working with complex needs women to lead the interventions hub and to engage with local providers and partners.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many beds each planned residential women’s centre will provide.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Female Offender Strategy (2018) set out the ambition to see fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences. We know that many women at risk of short custodial sentences have particularly complex needs and prolific offending histories compared to women supervised in the community. Our Strategy therefore committed to developing a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales, as a robust alternative to custody, providing safe accommodation and intensive rehabilitative support as part of a community sentence.
Learning from existing providers of intensive residential support options, both at the point of sentencing and on release, indicates that this form of provision is effective in reducing reoffending. The RWC pilot will enable us to test models of safe accommodation and holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending, and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
On 5 May 2020 we announced that the first RWC will be located in Wales. Subsequently we have advised the Welsh Government, local MPs, PCCs and other partners that we have shortlisted sites in South Wales, and we anticipate one of those sites could be a potential location for the first pilot RWC. As yet we have not identified sites for the four RWCs in England.
We anticipate that each RWC will have 12 beds. RWCs will also provide support, very similar to that offered by a women’s centre, with interventions to support women address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. We anticipate it will offer interventions to meet the needs of residents, ex-residents and women in the local community who have been referred to the RWC by their offender manager.
We expect the RWCs will work with key partners and providers of women-specific services in their local area and draw on the expertise of those who currently work with women with complex needs and women with lived experience. The RWC will be led by the NPS but will employ women with experience of working with complex needs women to lead the interventions hub and to engage with local providers and partners.