Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if residential women’s centres will be used exclusively for women released from prison to support resettlement.
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, whether residential women’s centres will be (a) run and (b) managed by voluntary organisations with expertise in providing services to women.
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 residential women’s centres his Department plans to develop; and where those centres will be sited.
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, with reference to any published criteria or guidance including, but not limited to, the Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide 2020 and Practice Direction 54E (Planning Court Claims), what the process is for the allocation of cases identified as Aarhus Convention claims in Form N461 to judges in the Planning and Administrative Courts; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Judges dealing with Planning Court cases are authorised to do so by the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, based on their experience and expertise in dealing with such matters. Cases requiring planning expertise are allocated to an available Planning Court Judge.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide a list of case citations for cases identified as Aarhus Convention claims in Form N461 that were the subject of a hearing in the Planning Court from 1 January 2017 to date.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will set out the (a) presiding judge(s) and (b) outcome of each hearing in the Planning Court on a case identified as an Aarhus Convention claim in Form N461 from 1 January 2017 to date.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of applications for (a) judicial review and (b) judicial review involving environmental claims have succeeded at final hearing in each year since the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 came into force.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The information requested is provided at Annex A covering each year since the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 came into force.