Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Morgan Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2019 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Stephen Morgan (Portsmouth South) (Lab)]

1. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for women’s centres to rehabilitate female offenders.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lucy Frazer)]

I start by saying how deeply upsetting it was to hear of the recent tragic incident at HMP Bronzefield. It was a terrible incident, and my thoughts are with all those who have been affected. As would be expected, there are a number of ongoing investigations, including an investigation by the police.

The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight the important role of women’s centres in providing holistic support to vulnerable women. This approach forms part of our female offender strategy, which announced a £5 million investment in community provision for women from 2018 to 2020. As we take forward the strategy, we are committed to ensuring sufficient funding for female offenders.

[Stephen Morgan]

Almost half of all women sent to prison are homeless, up significantly in the past few years. Does the Minister really believe that this Government’s approach of failing to properly fund women’s centres is working?

[Lucy Frazer]

Of course it is important that we look after all our offenders, and we have a particular strategy in relation to female offenders. We not only want to ensure they get adequate care in prison, but we are also intervening early to try to prevent women from entering the justice system at all.