Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has held with his Saudi Arabian counterpart on conditions in Saudi Arabian prisons for women's rights activists.
Answered by Alistair Burt
We regularly raise our concerns with the Saudi authorities about the women’s rights activists in detention. Most recently, the Foreign Secretary raised these concerns with his Saudi counterparts on 2 March. We consistently and unreservedly condemn torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and it is a priority for us to combat it wherever and whenever it occurs.
Asked by: Luciana Berger (Liberal Democrat - Liverpool, Wavertree)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department’s policies of the findings of a report by Inquest entitled Still Dying on the inside: examining deaths in women's prisons, published in May 2018, that 93 women have died in custody in England and Wales since March 2007; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are very aware of the number of women who have tragically died in our custody, and we welcome the Inquest report that rightly draws attention to the figures and to the risks this population presents. I look forward to meeting Inquest soon to discuss the recommendations in their report. Our published statistics show that the 93 deaths from 2007 to 2017 to which the report refers include 41 from natural causes, 39 that were apparently self-inflicted and 13 other deaths, including 6 that have yet to be classified. The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep staff and prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in our prisons. This is why we have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody. This includes a workstream on women offenders, which has drawn on helpful reports from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody to identify and take forward focused work in women’s prisons. These are in addition to the measures that we are taking across the estate, which include rolling out revised and improved training for staff in assessing and managing the risk of suicide and self-harm amongst prisoners (which has already reached more than 17,000 staff); improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody; revising the ACCT case management process for those identified as being at risk; and renewing our partnership with the Samaritans by confirming a further three years' grant funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme. On 27 June we published our strategy for female offenders, which sets out our vision and plan to improve outcomes for women both in the community and in custody. We want to see:
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Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women’s prisons his Department plans to close in the next four years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
On 27 June we published our strategy for female offenders, which sets out our vision to see fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully.
We previously announced, in 2013, our intention to close HM Prison and Young Offender Institution Askham Grange and HMP Prison and Young Offender Institution East Sutton Park. However no dates were set for the closure of these establishments.
No further decisions have been made about future prison closures (male or female) beyond those which have already been announced.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much money has been raised for the public purse by the (a) closure and (b) sale of women’s prisons since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Since 2010 there has been one prison closure in the women’s prison estate which was in June 2016 when HMP and Young Offender Institute (HMP&YOI) Holloway was closed. In the financial year 2015-2016 the overall resource expenditure of the site was £21,246,449. A full breakdown of costs per prison and other prison performance statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-statistics-2015-to-2016
We expect to make an announcement on the sale of the former prison later this year.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much money his Department previously allocated for the (a) construction and (b) operation of female community prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have consulted with stakeholders as part of the development our strategy for female offenders and reviewed the evidence about custodial and community interventions. The overwhelming response, and the strength of the evidence, demonstrated that we should shift our emphasis from custody to the community, and as such will not be perusing plans to build community prisons for women.
On 27 June we published our strategy for female offenders, which sets out our vision to see fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully. The strategy launched a programme of work to deliver better outcomes for women, their families and wider society, supported by £5 million of cross-government funding over two years. We have also committed to work with local and national partners to develop a pilot for ‘residential women’s centres’ in at least five sites across England and Wales.
The publication of this document is the start of a new and significant programme of work to deliver better outcomes for female offenders at all points of the justice system. This will take some years to deliver and we will have the opportunity to revisit funding issues as we take work forward.
I remain committed to delivering these key reforms, which includes the female offender strategy, and ensuring there is sufficient funding for female offenders
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much of the money his Department previously allocated for the construction and operation of female community prisons has (a) been spent elsewhere and (b) is planned to be spent elsewhere in his Department.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have consulted with stakeholders as part of the development our strategy for female offenders and reviewed the evidence about custodial and community interventions. The overwhelming response, and the strength of the evidence, demonstrated that we should shift our emphasis from custody to the community, and as such will not be perusing plans to build community prisons for women.
On 27 June we published our strategy for female offenders, which sets out our vision to see fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully. The strategy launched a programme of work to deliver better outcomes for women, their families and wider society, supported by £5 million of cross-government funding over two years. We have also committed to work with local and national partners to develop a pilot for ‘residential women’s centres’ in at least five sites across England and Wales.
The publication of this document is the start of a new and significant programme of work to deliver better outcomes for female offenders at all points of the justice system. This will take some years to deliver and we will have the opportunity to revisit funding issues as we take work forward.
I remain committed to delivering these key reforms, which includes the female offender strategy, and ensuring there is sufficient funding for female offenders
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total spend has been on the female prison estate in each year since 2010.
Answered by Rory Stewart
HMPPS routinely publishes average costs per prisoner, costs per prison place and overall prison unit costs for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales, including all categories of the female estate. This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year.
Information on prison expenditure for previous financial years can be accessed in the Prison and Probation Performance Statistics pages for each financial year on the www.gov.uk website. Prison unit costs can be found within the Excel document Costs per prison place and cost per prisoner by individual prison establishment in the ‘Cost by Establishment’ tab.
The most recent published figures for financial year 2016-17 can be accessed on the www.gov.uk website from the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic s/prison-performance-statistics-2016-to-2017
We are committed to doing all we can to address the issues around female offending so we can better protect the public and deliver more effective rehabilitation.
I am pleased to say that on 27 June, we published our strategy for female offenders, which sets out our vision and plan to improve outcomes for women in the community and custody.
This strategy sets out the Government’s commitment to a new programme of work for female offenders, driven by our vision to see: fewer women coming into the criminal justice system,
fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully; and better conditions for those in custody.
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Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the procedure is for recording (a) births and (b) stillbirths in women's prisons.
Answered by Phillip Lee
It is a requirement for mothers (or fathers) to register births (and still births) within 42 days and prison staff will arrange for registrars to come into the establishment to do this where necessary.
While there is no requirement for prisons to keep a central record of women who give birth (or suffer a still birth) whilst in prison, the issues pertinent to prisoners, their management and care will be noted on their individual case record. This will include details of whether the woman is pregnant and the outcome of that pregnancy, should it occur whilst they are in custody.
We currently do not record the number of women who give birth in prisons centrally but consideration will be given on recording this information locally on prison systems.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if the Government will amend the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme classification for children's visits to parents in male prisons to make them consistent with guidelines for visits to parents in women's prisons.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We recognise the difficulties for families in maintaining contact when a parent is in prison, as well as the importance of avoiding, wherever possible, any detrimental impact on children.
All convicted prisoners are statutorily entitled to the same minimum number of social visits, that is two visits in every 28-day period. Some prisons also run family days where children of prisoners can spend time with their parent. We are currently reviewing the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme to ensure it encourages positive and responsible behaviour by prisoners whilst in custody and helps them to prepare themselves for life after prison. We will ensure that IEP is not used as a determining factor for access to family days for any prisoner, regardless of their gender.
Asked by: Baroness Cox (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have any information regarding the health of the women detained by the government of Sudan following the protests which began on 7 January; and if not, whether they will request this information in order to assess any violations of human rights which could affect the lifting of sanctions.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
UK Embassy officials are raising our concerns with the Government of Sudan about those detained following recent protests, including at a bilateral meeting on 21 January and through a public statement by EU ambassadors in Sudan on 30 January. While no official statistics are available, we estimate that the detained include around 25 women. We have no information on their health, but are calling on the Government to release all those detained as soon as possible and to ensure that they are not mistreated.
We consider that women's prisons in Sudan do not meet international standards, but we have seen no evidence of systemic mistreatment among the general prison population. There is considerable evidence that facilities operated by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) do routinely mistreat detainees. However, we understand that none of the women detained following recent protests are being held in NISS facilities. To reduce mistreatment, we strongly urge the Government of Sudan to implement the recommendations of the National Dialogue on the powers of the security services to arrest and detain individuals.