Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to decommission prison places in the women's prison estate over the next five years.

The Government remains wholly committed to delivering the Female Offender Strategy, which has three overarching priorities of: fewer women coming into the criminal justice system; fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences, with more managed effectively in the community; and better conditions for women in custody. The current project to deliver new facilities on the women’s estate that are gender specific and trauma informed is an important step in taking forward this last aim. If the women’s prison population does not rise then we have committed to using these places to close down existing older, less suitable accommodation in the women’s estate.