Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prisoners serving (1) determinate, and (2) indeterminate, sentences were granted compassionate release from prison on the grounds of ill health in 2023 and 2024.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Secretary of State may release a serving prisoner at any point in the sentence if he is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist which justify the prisoner’s release on compassionate grounds.
The following table shows the number of prisoners released early on compassionate grounds for reasons of ill health, in 2023 and 2024, broken down by sentence type.
| 2023 | 2024 |
Determinate | 5 | 5 |
Indeterminate | 2 | 1 |
1. The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Public protection remains the priority and prisoners will be released early on compassionate grounds only if exceptional circumstances can be evidenced and if they are assessed to be safely manageable in the community.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect the second part of Lord Leveson's Independent Review of the Criminal Courts to be published.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Part two of the Independent Review into Criminal Courts is considering how the criminal courts can operate as efficiently as possible, specifically looking at the efficiency and timeliness of processes. We expect to receive Sir Brian's report on court efficiency early next year.
We will consider his recommendations in full and will respond in due course.
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.