Prisoners' Transfers: Pregnancy

(asked on 12th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents have there been of pregnant women being transported in cellular vehicles since the introduction of the Women’s Policy Framework in December 2018.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 27th June 2019

The Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) contract is specifically designed for the movement of prisoners in cellular vehicles that meets MOJ standards.

A total of 191 pregnant women have been transported since December 2018, with 1 being moved by a cellular vehicle because she did not declare her pregnancy before the move.

Below is a table showing the number of instances when both women and men have been transported in the same vehicle. PECS contracts include a Contract Delivery Indicator which requires women to be separated from men for at least 97% of all journeys made. The current national performance is 99.93% of total journeys made.

Year

Number of instances OF failure to separate females

2014

297

2015

226

2016

262

2017

81

2018

5

2019 YTD

5

Contracts also include a requirement that individuals should not remain on a cellular, or any other vehicle, overnight and there have been no instances where women have been held in such circumstances.

Private providers continue to play an important role in the prison estate. We will continue to closely the performance of all providers and we will not hesitate to take action where

standards fall short.

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