Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department's press release of 27 June 2018 entitled Secretary of State launches dedicated strategy to break the cycle of female offending, how many residential women's centres have been opened in England and Wales for females convicted of offences since June 2018; and what the locations are of those centres.

The Female Offender Strategy committed to develop a ‘residential women’s centre’ pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales. The aim of the pilots, when they begin, will be to develop an evidence base for how we might reduce the numbers of women entering and re-entering custody for short periods.

We want to make sure the models we take forward are sustainable, scalable and appropriate for the local context of each site. We have recently concluded our first phase of consultation with stakeholders, partners and providers to inform our scoping. We will continue to consult with partners as we refine the design and delivery of the pilot.

We are currently reflecting on the findings from our scoping work to develop a delivery plan for the pilots. No decisions regarding the location of Residential Women’ Centre pilots have yet been made.