Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Women in Prison's 7 October report on The Value of Women's Centres, if he will invest in community-based women's centres to reduce offending rates.

The Government understands the vital role that women’s centres and women’s community sector organisations play in supporting women with complex needs to address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. The Ministry of Justice is investing up to £21 million in grant funding between 2022 and 2025 in women’s community sector organisations. The funding is available to meet organisations’ core costs, such as rent and utility bills, as well as to fund new or additional services or interventions to test and build our evidence base. This is in addition to the £9.5m that has been invested since June 2018.