Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of children annually affected by the imprisonment of a parent or main caregiver; and on what basis that estimate has been reached.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
No recent annual estimate has been made of the number of children affected by the imprisonment of a parent or main caregiver. However, the Government acknowledges the importance of better data collection to further understand the prevalence and needs of prisoners with children and is committed to collecting more data centrally and using this to inform policy and improve our services.
Changes are currently being made to the Basic Custody Screening Tool to enable us to collect data on entry to prison about how many primary carers are in custody and how many children under the age of 18 are affected by their imprisonment. Once these changes are made, we will be able to collate this information centrally.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on improving support services for children whose parents are serving a term of imprisonment; and if he will include those services in his Department's tender for the Provision of HMPPS Prisoner, Family and Significant Other Services.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We recognise that families and significant other relationships can be a positive influence on reducing reoffending, and also encourage prisoners to maintain contact to improve prisoners’ health and well-being. Strengthening these ties is one of the many important factors to successful rehabilitation, with studies showing that prisoners who receive family visits are 39% less likely to reoffend. We also recognise, however, that there are some circumstances where, owing to the nature of the offence, family contact would not be desirable.
Policy responsibility for children who may be vulnerable as a result of parental incarceration in England sits with the Secretary of State for Education, while policy responsibility is a devolved matter in Wales. As part of our commitment to strengthening family ties, we are working across Government with the Department of Education, Welsh Government and Other Government Departments, to understand how to best support children, who may be vulnerable, as a result of parental incarceration.
HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) are in the process of developing requirements for the provision of the Prisoner, Family and Significant Other Services, that will operate from October 2022. As part of that process, HMPPS will be engaging with the external market to help inform and further develop the final specification for those services, which will subsequently be published within the procurement documentation and available to all potential bidders in January 2022.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will include the provision of support services for families of prisoners, including where there is no contact because of the nature of the offences committed, in the tender for the Provision of HMPPS Prisoner, Family and Significant Other Services.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We recognise that families and significant other relationships can be a positive influence on reducing reoffending, and also encourage prisoners to maintain contact to improve prisoners’ health and well-being. Strengthening these ties is one of the many important factors to successful rehabilitation, with studies showing that prisoners who receive family visits are 39% less likely to reoffend. We also recognise, however, that there are some circumstances where, owing to the nature of the offence, family contact would not be desirable.
Policy responsibility for children who may be vulnerable as a result of parental incarceration in England sits with the Secretary of State for Education, while policy responsibility is a devolved matter in Wales. As part of our commitment to strengthening family ties, we are working across Government with the Department of Education, Welsh Government and Other Government Departments, to understand how to best support children, who may be vulnerable, as a result of parental incarceration.
HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) are in the process of developing requirements for the provision of the Prisoner, Family and Significant Other Services, that will operate from October 2022. As part of that process, HMPPS will be engaging with the external market to help inform and further develop the final specification for those services, which will subsequently be published within the procurement documentation and available to all potential bidders in January 2022.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women were known to be pregnant while on remand or serving a sentence in HMP Eastwood Park in each quarter from 31 March 2015 to 30 September 2020 (a) in total and (b) by ethnicity.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Prior to July 2020 pregnancy data was collected locally by individual prisons, we are in the process of retrieving data from the establishment and quality assuring the information requested. As soon as verified data is available, I will write to the Honourable Member.
As of last summer, internal national data collection processes have been in place to enable us to plan for future publication. In July 2020 we published a summary report of our review of operational policy on pregnancy and women separated from children under 2. This included an undertaking to extend the range of data we publish in relation to pregnant women in prison, and can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/905559/summary-report-of-review-of-policy-on-mbu.pdf
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the update posted on www.gov.uk on 23 February 2021, what steps he is taking to allow prison visits to resume.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Social visits to prisons are currently suspended given the risks from Covid-19 and the need to minimise non-essential travel at this time. We continue to support social visits in compassionate circumstances, including visits to children in custody.
In line with the community position, over the coming weeks and months we will support establishments to ease some of the restrictions currently in place, guided by public health advice and as it becomes safe to do so. To support the delivery of greater regime activity, significant additional measures have been put in place to reduce the risk of Covid-19 as much as possible. The mitigations we have introduced mean that we are now much better prepared for managing Covid-19 in prisons.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2021 to Questions 151640, 151641, 151642, 151643 and 152427 on Residential Women's Centres (RWC), whether it is his policy that RWCs will be for women sentenced to a community sentence with time in a RWC as an additional requirement or for women being resettled after a prison sentence.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The residential women’s centre (RWC) will be for women sentenced to a community order or suspended sentence order with a residence requirement to reside at the RWC.
The RWC will provide holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the evidential basis is for residential women’s centres leading to a reduction in the level of crime.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Female Offender Strategy (2018) set out the ambition to see fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences. We know that many women at risk of short custodial sentences have particularly complex needs and prolific offending histories compared to women supervised in the community. Our Strategy therefore committed to developing a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales, as a robust alternative to custody, providing safe accommodation and intensive rehabilitative support as part of a community sentence.
Learning from existing providers of intensive residential support options, both at the point of sentencing and on release, indicates that this form of provision is effective in reducing reoffending. The RWC pilot will enable us to test models of safe accommodation and holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending, and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
On 5 May 2020 we announced that the first RWC will be located in Wales. Subsequently we have advised the Welsh Government, local MPs, PCCs and other partners that we have shortlisted sites in South Wales, and we anticipate one of those sites could be a potential location for the first pilot RWC. As yet we have not identified sites for the four RWCs in England.
We anticipate that each RWC will have 12 beds. RWCs will also provide support, very similar to that offered by a women’s centre, with interventions to support women address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. We anticipate it will offer interventions to meet the needs of residents, ex-residents and women in the local community who have been referred to the RWC by their offender manager.
We expect the RWCs will work with key partners and providers of women-specific services in their local area and draw on the expertise of those who currently work with women with complex needs and women with lived experience. The RWC will be led by the NPS but will employ women with experience of working with complex needs women to lead the interventions hub and to engage with local providers and partners.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many beds each planned residential women’s centre will provide.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Female Offender Strategy (2018) set out the ambition to see fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences. We know that many women at risk of short custodial sentences have particularly complex needs and prolific offending histories compared to women supervised in the community. Our Strategy therefore committed to developing a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales, as a robust alternative to custody, providing safe accommodation and intensive rehabilitative support as part of a community sentence.
Learning from existing providers of intensive residential support options, both at the point of sentencing and on release, indicates that this form of provision is effective in reducing reoffending. The RWC pilot will enable us to test models of safe accommodation and holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending, and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
On 5 May 2020 we announced that the first RWC will be located in Wales. Subsequently we have advised the Welsh Government, local MPs, PCCs and other partners that we have shortlisted sites in South Wales, and we anticipate one of those sites could be a potential location for the first pilot RWC. As yet we have not identified sites for the four RWCs in England.
We anticipate that each RWC will have 12 beds. RWCs will also provide support, very similar to that offered by a women’s centre, with interventions to support women address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. We anticipate it will offer interventions to meet the needs of residents, ex-residents and women in the local community who have been referred to the RWC by their offender manager.
We expect the RWCs will work with key partners and providers of women-specific services in their local area and draw on the expertise of those who currently work with women with complex needs and women with lived experience. The RWC will be led by the NPS but will employ women with experience of working with complex needs women to lead the interventions hub and to engage with local providers and partners.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if residential women’s centres will be used exclusively for women released from prison to support resettlement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Female Offender Strategy (2018) set out the ambition to see fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences. We know that many women at risk of short custodial sentences have particularly complex needs and prolific offending histories compared to women supervised in the community. Our Strategy therefore committed to developing a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales, as a robust alternative to custody, providing safe accommodation and intensive rehabilitative support as part of a community sentence.
Learning from existing providers of intensive residential support options, both at the point of sentencing and on release, indicates that this form of provision is effective in reducing reoffending. The RWC pilot will enable us to test models of safe accommodation and holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending, and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
On 5 May 2020 we announced that the first RWC will be located in Wales. Subsequently we have advised the Welsh Government, local MPs, PCCs and other partners that we have shortlisted sites in South Wales, and we anticipate one of those sites could be a potential location for the first pilot RWC. As yet we have not identified sites for the four RWCs in England.
We anticipate that each RWC will have 12 beds. RWCs will also provide support, very similar to that offered by a women’s centre, with interventions to support women address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. We anticipate it will offer interventions to meet the needs of residents, ex-residents and women in the local community who have been referred to the RWC by their offender manager.
We expect the RWCs will work with key partners and providers of women-specific services in their local area and draw on the expertise of those who currently work with women with complex needs and women with lived experience. The RWC will be led by the NPS but will employ women with experience of working with complex needs women to lead the interventions hub and to engage with local providers and partners.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether residential women’s centres will be (a) run and (b) managed by voluntary organisations with expertise in providing services to women.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Female Offender Strategy (2018) set out the ambition to see fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences. We know that many women at risk of short custodial sentences have particularly complex needs and prolific offending histories compared to women supervised in the community. Our Strategy therefore committed to developing a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales, as a robust alternative to custody, providing safe accommodation and intensive rehabilitative support as part of a community sentence.
Learning from existing providers of intensive residential support options, both at the point of sentencing and on release, indicates that this form of provision is effective in reducing reoffending. The RWC pilot will enable us to test models of safe accommodation and holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending, and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
On 5 May 2020 we announced that the first RWC will be located in Wales. Subsequently we have advised the Welsh Government, local MPs, PCCs and other partners that we have shortlisted sites in South Wales, and we anticipate one of those sites could be a potential location for the first pilot RWC. As yet we have not identified sites for the four RWCs in England.
We anticipate that each RWC will have 12 beds. RWCs will also provide support, very similar to that offered by a women’s centre, with interventions to support women address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. We anticipate it will offer interventions to meet the needs of residents, ex-residents and women in the local community who have been referred to the RWC by their offender manager.
We expect the RWCs will work with key partners and providers of women-specific services in their local area and draw on the expertise of those who currently work with women with complex needs and women with lived experience. The RWC will be led by the NPS but will employ women with experience of working with complex needs women to lead the interventions hub and to engage with local providers and partners.