Advisory Board on Female Offenders

(asked on 8th February 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department's announcement of 23 January 2021 entitled Extra funding for organisations that steer women away from crime, whether the Advisory Board on Female Offenders has been given access to his Department's modelling of demand for places in women's prisons.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 11th February 2021

The Female Offender Strategy set out the Government’s vision of fewer women offending and reoffending; fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, with a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully; and where prison is necessary, better conditions for those in custody. The average female prison population in 2010 was 4236, compared to 3126 as of 29 January 2021 - a decrease of 26%. Delivery of the community commitments in our Strategy and in the recent Sentencing White Paper should see this trend continue in the long-term.

We published our latest population projections in November 2020, in which we included prison projections for four scenarios – the three police impact scenarios in response to the plan to recruit an additional 20,000 police offices and a fast court recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a meeting of the Advisory Board on Female Offenders (ABFO) on 21 January, attendees were informed that the additional police officers were expected to lead to an increase in the male and female prison populations, and that it was necessary to plan for this, to ensure that there were safe, decent and secure places to meet this demand. On 22 January 2021, in advance of the announcement on 23 January 2021, we informed all ABFO members that up to 500 new places, designed to meet the specific needs of women, will be built in existing prisons to increase availability of single cells and improve conditions as part of the 18,000 additional prison places programme. These places will enable us to hold more women closer to home and their families.

All ABFO members were invited to a workshop on 4 February, attended by the Minister of State for Prisons and Probation, to discuss and understand their views and concerns surrounding the women’s prison estate. During this session, we were able to provide further information on the scope of our work, and our future proposals. We will continue to engage with stakeholders as our plans develop.

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