Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether HM Prisons and Probation Service’s Pride in Prison and Probation staff network has (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff employed to support it; and whether that staff network receives funding from the service to cover its (i) operating costs and (ii) activities.

The Pride in Prison and Probation (PiPP) staff network has a full-time national lead, on loan from their usual business area in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). No HMPPS staff are employed in a part time capacity to support the network. Staff networks are not allocated a budget: if funding is requested to deliver specific activities, a business case would need to be submitted.

PiPP is represented on HMPPS’ Transgender Advisory Board, which reviews HMPPS policy on the care and management of individuals who are transgender.

HMPPS policy sets out that transgender individuals must be subject to a robust risk assessment when considering to which part of the estate they are allocated. This assessment considers a wide range of factors including offending history and anatomy. Currently, over 90% of transgender women are held in the men’s prison estate.

We are strengthening this policy so that transgender women who have birth genitalia and/or have committed sexual offences cannot be held in the general women’s estate, subject to an exemption policy for truly exceptional cases.