Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what representations he has received from the Advisory Board on Female Offenders on the level of funding for the female offender strategy.

The Advisory Board on Female Offenders have been engaged throughout the development of the female offender strategy and have expressed views on level of funding as part of that process. In recognition, we are reforming the Advisory Board to give it a greater role in monitoring and advising on the delivery of the strategy. Following publication of the strategy on 27 June, 10 stakeholder members wrote to the Secretary of State for Justice welcoming the strategy, but expressing concern about the level of investment.

Our strategy for female offenders sets out the Government’s commitment to a new programme of work for female offenders. This is driven by our vision, which includes wanting to see fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully. It will take some years to deliver our aims and commitments, and we will keep funding under review as this work progresses. As an immediate step, we have announced £5m investment in community provision for female offenders over the next two years, including a £3.5m grant funding competition to support women’s community services and multi-agency Whole System Approaches to female offenders.