Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Harper Excerpts

Tuesday 1st July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

1. What progress he has made on his plans to bring down the level of reoffending.

[Mr Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) (Con)]

6. What progress he has made on reducing the level of reoffending.

[Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) (Con)]

7. What progress he has made on his plans to bring down the level of reoffending.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Grayling]

We are on track to establish the network of resettlement prisons later this year to coincide with the commencement of the mentoring and supervision of under-12-month offenders. This part of our reforms is enormously important. It will mean that offenders will spend the last few months of their sentence in or just outside the geographic area into which they will be released in order to ensure that we have a proper through-the-gate service to plan, prepare and implement arrangements for their release.

[Mr Harper]

What account has the Secretary of State taken in his plans for reducing reoffending of the need to help women, in particular, out of the cycle of crime and reoffending?

[Chris Grayling]

I can confirm that arrangements were put in place in the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 to ensure that there is a statutory obligation to make arrangements for women. We want to ensure that both men and women have full access to through-the-gate support and preparations for release. The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes), is working on a number of innovative projects in the women’s estate to ensure that we do the best possible job of preparing women for release and deal with their particular circumstances, especially when they have young children and families.