Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women in prison have been refused a place in a mother and baby unit in each of the last five years.
The table below details the number of applications that were made for a place on a prison mother and baby unit in the last five financial years, together with the number of applications approved and refused.
Table: Mother & Baby Units (MBU) Management Information, by year 2010/11 to 2016/171
| 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 |
Number of applications received for admission to MBU | 215 | 210 | 197 | 144 | 119 |
Number of applications approved by a board2 | 114 | 80 | 74 | 69 | 61 |
Number of applications refused by a board2 | 33 | 28 | 32 | 41 | 16 |
(1) Figures are management information drawn from administrative data systems. They are provisional figures and subject to change following final quality assurance. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.
(2) Not all applications to MBUs will be approved or refused, many will not proceed for other reasons. Applications may not be assessed in the month in which they are received.