Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made for the implications of his policies of the Women in Prison’s report on the Value of Women’s Centres which noted that investing in Women's Centres could generate a nearly triple return on investment; and if his Department would contribute to a cross-departmental fund for such an investment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government appreciates the important role women’s centres play in supporting women in the community with complex needs, including supporting ex-offenders to address the underlying causes of their behaviour, as set out in this report.
The benefits of work for ex-offenders are far reaching and that is why DWP already invests significant funding for over 200 prison Work Coaches who provide employment and benefit support in prisons. Our extensive network of Jobcentre Work Coaches also provide tailored employment support to ex-offenders in the community.
The Ministry of Justice is investing up to £24 million in women’s community services that aim to both support the sector in delivering vital services and to promote better local integration in how those services are delivered. The effectiveness of their funding for women’s community services will be evaluated and inform future funding decisions across Government.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle drug use in prisons.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The cross-government Drugs Strategy, published in December 2021, sets out a 10-year plan to reduce the supply and demand for drugs, deliver a high-quality treatment and recovery system, and reduce drug harms. The strategy was underpinned by record £900m investment across government to tackle drug misuse, including £120m funding for the MoJ to get more offenders into treatment.
To do this we are: piloting Problem-Solving Courts to combat drug and alcohol fuelled crime; rolling out Drug Recovery Wings where prisoners commit to remain abstinent and undergo regular voluntary drug tests; recruiting Drug Strategy Leads in all male category C and women's prisons to coordinate a whole system approach to tackling drugs, as well as Health and Justice Coordinators across all probation regions to ensure continuity of care for prison leavers.
This is all in addition to the existing £100m already invested to combat crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking through the criminal justice system to tackle alcohol and drug related crime.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The cross-government Drugs Strategy, published in December 2021, sets out a 10-year plan to reduce the supply and demand for drugs, deliver a high-quality treatment and recovery system, and reduce drug harms. The strategy was underpinned by record £900m investment across government to tackle drug misuse, including £120m funding for the MoJ to get more offenders into treatment.
To do this we are: piloting Problem-Solving Courts to combat drug and alcohol fuelled crime; rolling out Drug Recovery Wings where prisoners commit to remain abstinent and undergo regular voluntary drug tests; recruiting Drug Strategy Leads in all male category C and women's prisons to coordinate a whole system approach to tackling drugs, as well as Health and Justice Coordinators across all probation regions to ensure continuity of care for prison leavers.
This is all in addition to the existing £100m already invested to combat crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press notice entitled Extra funding for organisations that steer women away from crime, published by his Department on 23 January 2021, how much his Department has spent on on building new prison places in existing women’s prisons since January 2021.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
New places being delivered in the women’s estate will be delivered as part of our £3.8bn investment to deliver 20,000 prison places across England and Wales by the mid-2020s.
New facilities in the women’s prison estate will provide up to 500 extra places that are safe, secure, trauma-informed and gender-specific. We will also continue to invest in community-based interventions, to ensure women have an alternative to a custodial sentence where appropriate
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Liaison Officers there are across the women’s estate; and what training they have received.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Prisons Strategy White Paper set out a new approach for women’s prisons: one which is trauma responsive, recognises the distinct nature of women’s experience in custody and provides the appropriate levels of support, particularly for pregnant women and those with young children.
So far, we have developed bespoke selection and assessment criteria for staff in women’s prisons and started to roll out a bespoke model of staff training.
We have also funded a number of activities to support improvements in safety, including additional support for women with complex needs, specialist support for women who have experienced abuse and extra support during early days in custody.
In addition, we have announced the opening of a pilot Residential Women’s Centre in Swansea to provide a community-based alternative to a short custodial sentence.
The Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Unit and Maternal Separation from Children up to the Age of Two in Women’s Prisons Policy Framework (September 2021), committed to the introduction of the Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Liaison Officer across the women’s estate. There are 13 Liaison Officers in place and 12 attended the national ‘Managing Pregnant Women in Prison’ course in March 2022. Additionally, we have introduced a National Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Liaison Officers Support Network.
We also committed to The National Stakeholder Advisory Forum on Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units, and Maternal Separation from Children up to the Age of Two in Women’s Prisons. This bi-annual event will bring together key stakeholders and individuals with lived experience ensuring a culture of reflective practice and informed policy development. The first event is scheduled for Autumn 2022 and the terms of reference will be shared with forum attendees in advance.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department is making on ensuring that each women’s prison is a trauma-informed and responsive environment.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Prisons Strategy White Paper set out a new approach for women’s prisons: one which is trauma responsive, recognises the distinct nature of women’s experience in custody and provides the appropriate levels of support, particularly for pregnant women and those with young children.
So far, we have developed bespoke selection and assessment criteria for staff in women’s prisons and started to roll out a bespoke model of staff training.
We have also funded a number of activities to support improvements in safety, including additional support for women with complex needs, specialist support for women who have experienced abuse and extra support during early days in custody.
In addition, we have announced the opening of a pilot Residential Women’s Centre in Swansea to provide a community-based alternative to a short custodial sentence.
The Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Unit and Maternal Separation from Children up to the Age of Two in Women’s Prisons Policy Framework (September 2021), committed to the introduction of the Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Liaison Officer across the women’s estate. There are 13 Liaison Officers in place and 12 attended the national ‘Managing Pregnant Women in Prison’ course in March 2022. Additionally, we have introduced a National Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Liaison Officers Support Network.
We also committed to The National Stakeholder Advisory Forum on Pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units, and Maternal Separation from Children up to the Age of Two in Women’s Prisons. This bi-annual event will bring together key stakeholders and individuals with lived experience ensuring a culture of reflective practice and informed policy development. The first event is scheduled for Autumn 2022 and the terms of reference will be shared with forum attendees in advance.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for computers, phone calls and other technical support to allow women in prison to engage with local authorities.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we recognise that prisoner-facing technology can be transformative, including in supporting women with their rehabilitation and preparation for resettlement. To date, we have invested widely in prisoner communication, including rolling out video calling technology in July 2020 and email-reply systems in Autumn 2020 in all women’s prisons. We also completed the roll out of in-cell telephony in all closed women's prisons in June 2021. In addition, as part of family contracts, all women’s prisons have Family Engagement Workers who will work with and facilitate engagement with local authorities. In the longer-term, we aim to pilot employing social workers in women’s prisons.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what were the 10 principal causes of death of those prisoners who died while in women's prisons in England and Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Department publishes statistics concerning deaths in prison custody in England and Wales in the quarterly Safety in Custody statistics. A spreadsheet containing statistics on all deaths in custody up to December 2021 is available, in addition to quarterly bulletins outlining trends, at: Safety in custody: quarterly update to September 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Those statistics are broken down by whether the death was self-inflicted, from natural causes, or from other non-natural causes, or by homicide. They also show the number of ‘awaiting further information’ cases where the cause of death cannot yet be ascertained and remains under investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman or a coroner.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the rate of self-harm was among prisoners in (a) women's prisons and (b) men's prisons in each of the last three years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Department publishes statistics on deaths, self-harm and assaults in prison custody in England and Wales in the quarterly Safety in Custody statistics. A spreadsheet containing statistics on all instances of self-harm broken down by category is available, in addition to quarterly bulletins outlining trends at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics.
Last year, we implemented a revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) multi-disciplinary case management approach to support prisoners at risk of suicide or self-harm. We continue to make the Samaritans phone service available and are working with the Samaritans to ensure that the Listener peer support scheme continues to function effectively.
We are also implementing a new safety training package for staff, which addresses related issues, including suicide and self-harm prevention, understanding risks, triggers and protective factors, and communication skills.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff in women’s prisons have tested positive for covid-19 each month from March 2020 to December 2021.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
A total of 1,096 prisoners in women’s prisons have tested positive for COVID-19 from March 2020 to November 2021. Data on the number of prisoners who tested positive for COVID-19 was published in the November edition of the HM Prison and Probation Service COVID-19 statistics monthly series. The data for December 2021 is due to be published on 14 January 2022.
The total number of prisoners in women’s prisons who have tested positive for COVID-19 each month between March 2020 and November 2021 is given in the following table.
Table 1: Number of prisoners tested positive for COVID-19 in the women's estate each month from March 2020 to November 2021.
| Mar 2020 | Apr 2020 | May 2020 | Jun 2020 | Jul 2020 | Aug 2020 | Sep 2020 | Oct 2020 | Nov 2020 | Dec 2020 |
Women Prisoners | (c) | 31 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 59 | 107 | 169 |
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| Jan 2021 | Feb 2021 | Mar 2021 | Apr 2021 | May 2021 | Jun 2021 | Jul 2021 | Aug 2021 | Sep 2021 | Oct Nov 2021 2021 |
Women Prisoners | 192 | 146 | 40 | 3 | (c) | 3 | 44 | 39 | 12 | 15 215 |
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Data Quality
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Much of the data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic has been done at pace, with recording practices evolving as we understand more about the requirements and conditions we are facing. In order to present the timeliest information, the data presented in this report have not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics.
Notes:
1). The data for the latest month are provisional due to the time lag between taking the test and recording of the results on the central data collection.
2). Values (c) are confidential to prevent disclosure of individuals.
The number of staff in women’s prisons who have tested positive for covid-19 each month between March 2020 and October 2021 is given in the following table.
Table 2: COVID-19 Positive test results for staff1,2 working in Women's prisons, by directly/non-directly employed, March 2020 to October 20213
| Mar 2020 | Apr 2020 | May 2020 | Jun 2020 | Jul 2020 | Aug 2020 | Sep 2020 | Oct 2020 | Nov 2020 | Dec 2020 |
Directly employed | ~ | ~ | ~ | 0 | ~ | 0 | 9 | 66 | 77 | 133 |
Non-directly employed | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | 5 | 20 | 22 | 27 |
Total | 4 | 37 | 5 | ~ | 4 | ~ | 14 | 86 | 99 | 160 |
| Jan 2021 | Feb 2021 | Mar 2021 | Apr 2021 | May 2021 | Jun 2021 | Jul 2021 | Aug 2021 | Sep 2021 | Oct 2021 | Total |
Directly employed | 178 | 81 | 18 | ~ | 3 | 11 | 43 | 37 | 30 | 38 | 770 |
Non-directly employed | 49 | 19 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 214 |
Total | 227 | 100 | 28 | ~ | 3 | 15 | 57 | 50 | 41 | 50 | 984 |
Source: MoJ/HMPPS administrative systems and data collections
Data Quality: Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Much of the data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic has been done at pace, with recording practices evolving as we understand more about the requirements and conditions we are facing.
Notes:
1). Counts the distinct staff who have tested positive for COVID-19. These are self-reported.
2). Where staff have multiple positive tests within a 90-day period, they are now assumed to be from the same infection and are therefore only counted once. This has resulted in a small number of positive tests being removed from the published figures.
3). October 2021 is the latest published data. The next set of data for the period to 30 January 2022 is due to be published in the Workforce Statistics Report on 17 February 2022.
~ denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer, or other values (including zeroes) which would allow values of 2 or fewer to be derived by subtraction. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 2018.