Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many adjudications were received by women in prison aged (1) 18–24, or (2) 25 years or older, for each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The prisoner discipline system upholds justice in prisons and ensures incidents of prison rule-breaking have consequences. The Ministry of Justice monitors adjudication outcomes by offence, age, gender, ethnicity, religion and adjudicator, this data is published quarterly and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly. The specific information requested can be found in the table attached.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women in prison aged (1) 18–24, or (2) 25 years or older, experienced physical restraint by one or more members of staff in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
We can only provide the requested data on use of force incidents involving women in prison aged (1) 18–24, or (2) 25 years or older, by one or more members of staff for the period of year ending March 2019 to year ending March 2021. This is detailed in the attached Excel spreadsheet.
We cannot access the requested data for the previous seven years as we did not collate the information on an individual case basis and are unable to do so retrospectively.
Every use of physical force is reviewed and prison officers receive appropriate training to ensure that it is only used when necessary, reasonable and proportionate.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, or (2) 25 or older, are currently sharing a cell.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
On 19th November, the population of the women’s prison estate was 3,236.
306 were aged 18-24, and 69 from this age group were sharing a cell. Of these 69 women, 60 women were sharing double occupancy cells and 9 women were sharing accommodation holding three women or more.
Of the remaining 2930, 676 women were sharing double occupancy cells and 167 women were sharing specifically designed accommodation holding three women or more.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, or (2) 25 years or older, have dependent children.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
We do not hold current figures on how many women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24 or (2) 25 years or older have dependent children. Information on a prisoner’s caring responsibilities and their children living in the community is currently monitored locally by prison Governors/Directors to ensure appropriate support can be provided to offenders and their families. We are making changes to the questions within the Basic Custody Screening Tool (BCST) in the first quarter of 2022 and, once this has been done, we will be able to collect primary carer data via the BCST and access this information centrally. Consideration will then be given to how and what we can publish.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average number of miles that a (1) woman, or (2) man, in prison is held from their home address.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
As of 19 November 2021, prisoners living in the female prison estate were, on average, 46 miles away from their origin address.
As of 19 November 2021, prisoners living in the male prison estate were, on average, 45 miles away from their origin address.
There are complex and wide-ranging issues involved in transferring and locating prisoners, and allocation decisions must reflect both the specific needs and circumstances of the prisoner, including their security assessment, as well as the operating environment and range of services at the receiving prison.
HM Prison and Probation Service is committed to ensuring, where practicable, that prisoners are accommodated as close as possible to their resettlement communities and families. Whilst this is a priority, it is not always possible due to a variety of factors including wider population pressures, or where prisoners have specific sentence planning needs which can only be met at certain establishments.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women in prison aged 18 to 20 share a cell with a woman aged over 20 years old.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
As of 12th November, there were 65 prisoners in the HM Prison and Probation Service Women’s estate who were aged between 18 and 20. Of these, fewer than five were sharing a cell with another prisoner who was aged 21 or over.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what age-specific training prison staff receive for working with female prisoners aged 18 to 24.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) have developed the ‘women’s estate specialist training’ (WEST) course. Its modular content is threaded throughout the apprenticeship foundation programme to offer a distinct and dedicated course, underpinned by a trauma informed approach. This forms part of the nine-week foundation period for new prison officers destined to work within the women’s estate. The first dedicated WEST course has been scheduled to take place in January 2022. This course also contains a module which focuses on young women in custody. Existing staff in the women’s estate are able to access information through ‘myLearning’ which includes the Young Adults page which is designed to be an accessible resource for all staff to understand better the needs of this age group in custody.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women aged 18 to 24 have been received into prison in each year of the past 10 years, by establishment.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The attached tables show the number of first receptions of women aged 18-24 from 2011 to 2020, by establishment.
The Female Offender Strategy set out the Government’s vision of fewer women offending and reoffending; fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, with a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully; and where prison is necessary, better conditions for those in custody.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, were pregnant while in custody in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
On 20 September the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published a new policy on pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units and maternal separation from children up to the age of two in women’s prisons, which contains a range of reforms for improving the care of pregnant women. The policy requires increased local and central data collection on self-declared pregnant women in our care, to ensure individuals are receiving the relevant support and to ensure policy is more informed.
We publish some of this data in the HMPPS Annual Digest of statistical information. We published the first of these on 29 July 2021, which showed that during the period July 2020-April 2021 an average of 26 women self-declared as pregnant each week.
This is a dynamic area of policy and we will continue to consider our central data collection as it develops.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average number of miles that women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, are held from their home address.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
As of 5th November 2021, 308 women aged 18-24 years old were held on average 41.7 miles away from their origin address; 2,903 aged 25 and over were held on average 45.6 miles away from their origin address.
In instances where no address was recorded in the central database, an offender’s committal court address has been used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. Of a total population of 3,232 women, 21 did not have a home address or suitable court address recorded. These prisoners are typically foreign nationals or those recently received into custody.
This information has been drawn from administrative IT systems, which as with any large scale recording system are subject to possible error with data entry and processing.
The Female Offender Strategy set out the Government’s vision of fewer women offending and reoffending; fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, with a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully; and where prison is necessary, better conditions for those in custody.
In January we announced that new facilities, designed to meet the specific needs of women, will be built in existing prisons to increase availability of single cells and improve conditions as part of the 18,000 additional prison places programme. These places will enable us to hold more women closer to home and their families.