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

Table 2: Number of female prisoners serving determinate sentences broken down by sentence length on 30 September 2025(1)

Notes

1. The figures in this table exclude recalled prisoners, as well as non-criminal prisoners and those serving indeterminate sentences.

2. In order to provide complete data, this figure includes a prisoner serving more than 12 weeks but less than 3 months.

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

Table 2: Number of female prisoners serving determinate sentences broken down by sentence length on 30 September 2025(1)

Notes

1. The figures in this table exclude recalled prisoners, as well as non-criminal prisoners and those serving indeterminate sentences.

2. In order to provide complete data, this figure includes a prisoner serving more than 12 weeks but less than 3 months.

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.

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

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.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the availability of comprehensive palliative care across England.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Palliative care services are included in the list of services an integrated care board (ICB) must commission. To support ICBs in this duty, NHS England has published statutory guidance and service specifications.  The statutory guidance states that ICBs must work to ensure that there is sufficient provision of palliative care and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations.

NHS England has also developed a palliative care and end of life care dashboard, which brings together all relevant local data in one place. The dashboard helps commissioners understand the palliative care and end of life care needs of their local population.

The Department and NHS England are currently working at pace to develop plans on how best to improve the access, quality, and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with the 10-Year Health Plan. We will closely monitor the shift towards the strategic commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to ensure that services reduce variation in access and quality.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to support the establishment of more hospices in England.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government has set out that integrated care boards (ICBs) are required to commission palliative care and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations, which can include hospice services available within the ICB catchment.

We are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million capital funding boost for eligible adult and children’s hospices in England to ensure they have the best physical environment for care. We are also committing £80 million for children’s and young people’s hospices over the next three financial years.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the role and remit of the Office for Life Sciences.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Office for Life Sciences (OLS) is a joint unit between the Department of Health and Social Care, Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and the Department of Business and Trade. It exists to support the UK’s life sciences sector by championing research, innovation and technology, helping everyone live well for longer and kickstarting economic growth.

OLS is committed to renewing the UK’s leadership in life sciences – a cornerstone of the UK's success – deepening ties between the public, private and third sector to ensure growth across every region of the country. OLS has responsibility for the oversight of delivery of the Life Science Sector Plan, which was published in July 2025, as part of the Industrial Strategy and developed in tandem with the 10 Year Health Plan.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much money has been distributed through the Life Sciences Innovation Manufacturing Fund grants in each of the last five years and of this amount how much was allocated to (1) small, (2) medium and (3) large businesses.

Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (2025-30) launched in October 2024 has so far committed a total of £6 million in grant awards, 100% going to small and medium (SME) companies with fewer than 250 employees. Between 2022 and 2024, £69 million in grant funding was awarded through predecessor schemes, of which £3 million (4%) was awarded to SMEs and £66 million (96%) to larger companies. The LSIMF 2025-2030 scheme remains open and its pipeline contains applications from across the sector, and from companies of different sizes.

Found: Noon Watch the meeting Members present: Baroness Morris of Yardley (The Chair); Lord Blencathra; Lord Bradley

Found: am Watch the meeting Members present: Baroness Morris of Yardley (The Chair); Lord Blencathra; Lord Bradley