Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the establishment of women’s buildings, particularly following the closure of HMP Holloway.

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 over two years in community provisions for women. The strategy also gives a commitment to work with local and national partners to develop pilots for ‘residential women’s centres’ in at least five sites across England and Wales. This supports our vision to see fewer women in custody by developing more options for supporting women in the community. We are not proceeding with plans to build five Community Prisons for Women.