Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for computers, phone calls and other technical support to allow women in prison to engage with local authorities.

As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we recognise that prisoner-facing technology can be transformative, including in supporting women with their rehabilitation and preparation for resettlement. To date, we have invested widely in prisoner communication, including rolling out video calling technology in July 2020 and email-reply systems in Autumn 2020 in all women’s prisons. We also completed the roll out of in-cell telephony in all closed women's prisons in June 2021. In addition, as part of family contracts, all women’s prisons have Family Engagement Workers who will work with and facilitate engagement with local authorities. In the longer-term, we aim to pilot employing social workers in women’s prisons.