Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of the women sentenced to prison in 2017 for possession of weapons received sentences of (a) 0 to 1 months, (b) 0 to 3 months, (c) 0 to 6 months, (d) 0 to 12 months, and (e) 12 months or more.

The number of women sentenced to custody for sentenced to prison in 2017 for possession of weapons received sentences of (a) 0 to 1 months, (b) 0 to 3 months, (c) 0 to 6 months, (d) 0 to 12 months, and (e) 12 months or more, can be found in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Number of women in sentenced prison in 2017 for possession of a weapon by sentence length.

Public protection is our priority and there are some cases when prison remains the only suitable option. We are committed to addressing the issues around female offending so we can better protect the public and deliver more effective rehabilitation. That is why we have published a female offenders’ strategy, setting out a new programme of work, with investment of £5m in community solutions.