Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women currently in prison have been sentenced to a term of (1) less than 4 weeks, (2) 4 to 8 weeks, (3) 8 to 12 weeks, (4) 3 to 6 months, (5) 6 to 12 months and (6) over 12 months.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is provided below.
Table 1: Number of female prisoners on remand and sentenced on 30 September 2025
Custody type |
|
Remand | 972 |
Sentenced | 2,535 |
Table 2: Number of female prisoners serving determinate sentences broken down by sentence length on 30 September 2025(1)
Sentence length |
|
Less than 4 weeks | 4 |
4 weeks to less than 8 weeks | 3 |
8 weeks to less than 12 weeks | 43 |
3 months to less than or equal to 6 months | 136(2) |
More than 6 months to less than 12 months | 149 |
12 months and over | 1,327 |
Notes
The figures in this table exclude recalled prisoners, as well as non-criminal prisoners and those serving indeterminate sentences.
In order to provide complete data, this figure includes a prisoner serving more than 12 weeks but less than 3 months.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women are currently in prison (1) on remand and (2) serving a sentence.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is provided below.
Table 1: Number of female prisoners on remand and sentenced on 30 September 2025
Custody type |
|
Remand | 972 |
Sentenced | 2,535 |
Table 2: Number of female prisoners serving determinate sentences broken down by sentence length on 30 September 2025(1)
Sentence length |
|
Less than 4 weeks | 4 |
4 weeks to less than 8 weeks | 3 |
8 weeks to less than 12 weeks | 43 |
3 months to less than or equal to 6 months | 136(2) |
More than 6 months to less than 12 months | 149 |
12 months and over | 1,327 |
Notes
The figures in this table exclude recalled prisoners, as well as non-criminal prisoners and those serving indeterminate sentences.
In order to provide complete data, this figure includes a prisoner serving more than 12 weeks but less than 3 months.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women currently in prison, having been released on license, have been recalled to prison for (1) less than 4 weeks or (2) 4 to 8 weeks.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
On 30 June 2025, the latest date for which we can provide data from published statistics, there were 170 women in prison, having been released on licence, who had been recalled to prison and had served less than 4 weeks in custody and, similarly, 44 who had served 4-8 weeks in custody, out of a total of 517 women in the recall population.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women who were remanded into custody in the last 12 months were (1) not subsequently sentenced or (2) released having served the length of their sentence on remand.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of women who were not sentenced after being remanded in custody in the latest year available, year ending June 2025, can be found in the table below:
Table: The number of women who were not sentenced after being remanded in custody at the magistrates’ court and Crown Court, year ending June 2025
| Year ending June 2025 |
Magistrates’ Court | 189 |
Crown Court | 416 |
Notes:
The number of defendants not sentenced refers to cases discontinued or discharged, charges withdrawn or dismissed, acquittals and other disposals without conviction.
Figures for magistrates’ courts exclude cases committed to Crown Court for trial and sentencing.
Defendants are reported against their most serious remand status. All hearings except for sentence hearing are considered and ranked with custody as most serious, then bail and then not remanded or not applicable. A defendant’s remand status may change several times throughout their court journey, however what we report only reflects the most serious status they received in that set period and does not reflect the number of remand decisions made in those periods.
These figures are presented on a principal offence and principal disposal sentence – i.e. reporting information relating to the most serious offence that a defendant was dealt with for and the most severe sentence issued for the offence.
Further important caveats are found in the ‘Notes’ tab of the data source "Remands data tool: June 2025 which is available through the following link: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2025 - GOV.UK
Information relating to women who were remanded in custody and were released having served the length of their sentence on remand is not centrally held by the Ministry of Justice.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve the education of all prisoners in England.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service are committed to improving prison education across England. We have introduced key roles such as Heads of Education, Skills and Work, and Neurodiversity Support Managers, supported by regional leads and strengthened oversight of education contracts. Investment in digital infrastructure is expanding access to secure, flexible learning. Governors can commission enrichment and vocational courses through the Dynamic Purchasing System, while apprenticeships and the Future Skills Programme further support employment pathways. Ofsted feedback is closely monitored to drive improvements.
New Prison Education Service contracts have recently launched which aim to strengthen the quality of delivery, as well as standardising the assessment of prisoners and improving support for learners with additional needs. The Ministry of Justice is developing a strategy to evaluate prison education, and this will inform our plans for further improvements.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of (1) men, and (2) women who are released from from prison on licence are recalled to prison on the first occasion for breaking licence conditions; and, of these, what proportion are sentenced for an additional period of (a) up to two weeks, (b) two weeks to four weeks, (c) four weeks to eight weeks, (d) eight weeks to twelve weeks, and (e) over twelve weeks.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is not held in a readily reportable format and so could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the capacity of women's centres to support women who are serving community sentences.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Women’s centres provide vital information, advice and support to women in contact with the criminal justice system, including those serving community sentences.
His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) currently funds specialist support for women on probation through Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS) delivered by third sector organisations, including providers of women’s centres. HMPPS is committed to ensuring CRS contracts deliver holistic, gender-specific support that meets women’s needs, informed by service users, stakeholders and providers.
The Ministry of Justice is providing a further £7.2 million this year to support the women’s community sector. This funding is aimed at building sustainability, expanding interventions and increasing capacity, including residential provision where needed. Funding for future years is subject to internal allocations.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government which probation service areas in England provide women only arrangements at dedicated times of the week in their reception facilities.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
All probation regions in England provide women-only arrangements. The impact of partnerships, geography and environmental variables mean that these arrangements comprise of a mixture of dedicated times, trauma informed spaces and co-location with partner agencies to create women-only environments.
The Women’s Policy Framework (2024) sets out our shared HM Prison and Probation Service principles for working with women in the criminal justice system to enable better outcomes, ensuring that staff are supported, and the work is evidence based.
The document includes the options of being supervised by a female probation practitioner; being seen in a women-only environment; and not being placed in what would otherwise be an all-male work environment when undertaking Unpaid Work as part of a community order, or when undertaking any group work.
The Probation Service is working to increase the availability of women-only reporting spaces, either within probation offices or where co-located with partner agencies.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of women remanded in custody were (1) not sentenced to prison, and (2) sentenced to a short prison term less than the period on remand, in each of the past three years.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The percentage of women remanded in custody that were not sentenced to prison was 52% in 2022 and 2023. This increased slightly to 54% in 2024.
Percentage of women remanded in custody not receiving immediate custodial sentence
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Magistrates’ Courts | 68% | 65% | 67% |
Crown Courts | 45% | 45% | 45% |
Magistrates’ and Crown Courts | 52% | 52% | 54% |
Prisoners’ sentences are counted only once in these figures, at the court where they were sentenced: either at Magistrates’ or Crown Court.
Separate Magistrates’ and Crown Court figures are included in the table to show the varying custodial sentence rates, which are reflective of the different types of case sentenced at Magistrates’ and Crown courts.
Prisoners were remanded at some point in the proceedings, for any length of time (i.e. not necessarily remanded throughout court proceedings).
Further important caveats are found in the ‘Notes’ tab of the data source "Remands data tool: 2017 to 2024" (particularly notes 27-31), which is available through the following link: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2024 - GOV.UK.
Information relating to the total time spent on custodial remand is not centrally held by the Ministry of Justice, due to the considerable complexity in interpreting custodial journeys, which may include multiple cases in parallel. Although the Department has released estimates in the past, it has since been identified that results from the methodology previously used may no longer be accurate, and on that basis the Ministry of Justice cannot continue to use them. The Department is, however, working to improve its data and insights around this cohort of prisoners.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede on 9 May (HL6996), what progress they have made on each of the actions identified in that answer regarding the role, accessibility and quality of intermediary services.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
The Ministry of Justice completed a review of registered intermediary (RI) provision in 2023 which was summarised in the 2023 Witness Intermediary Scheme (WIS) Annual Report (also attached).
We have made good progress on the recommended actions, revising the definition of the RI role in guidance and working with criminal justice organisations and professional bodies such as the Bar Council to improve understanding of how to work with RIs.
We have also streamlined the Witness Intermediary Scheme’s governance and quality assurance arrangements through the creation of a Governance and Standards Board, responsible for both the strategic direction of the Scheme and overseeing the quality of registered intermediary practise.
Demand is growing for registered intermediaries, who play an important part in enabling thousands of vulnerable victims and witnesses to give their best evidence in criminal proceedings. We remain committed to considering how intermediary services are delivered across the justice sector and exploring options for how these might be delivered in future to help inform a better understanding of current usage and future demand for intermediaries across all justice settings.