Female Offender Strategy

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Monday 21st June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service ensures that all transgender individuals are managed safely, with their rights properly respected and in accordance with the law. Decisions on where individuals are located within the prison estate are made following assessments of all the known risks posed to and by the individual. This includes consideration of their current behaviour and previous offending history, to achieve an outcome that balances risks and promotes safety.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB) [V]]

Would it not be better for women addicted to drink or drugs who commit non-violent offences to go to a residential rehabilitation centre under a probation order, rather than to prison?

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

I agree with the noble and learned Baroness. The new probation service, which is a unified service nationally and starts at the end of this week, is the way that we can look much more seriously at in-community sentences for the offenders to whom she refers.