Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase the safety of women in prisons.

Ensuring the safety of staff and prisoners whilst in custody is a key priority and we continue to do everything we can to improve the safety outcomes of women in prison.

The Prisons Strategy White Paper, published in December 2021, set out our approach for women’s prisons; one which is trauma responsive, recognises the distinct nature of women’s experience in custody, and provides the appropriate levels of support, particularly for pregnant women and those with young children. In January 2023 we published our Female Offender Strategy Delivery Plan 2022-25, which set out our priorities for delivering the aims of the strategy, including better outcomes for women in custody.

Women in prison often face complex issues including mental health, self-harm, trauma, and separation from children. We are investing up to £14 million to support improvements in safety in women’s prisons between 2022-25.

We set up a Women’s Estate Self-Harm Task Force in April 2020 to help reduce levels of self-harm. To date, the Taskforce has:

o recruited psychologists to support women with the most complex needs;

o developed bespoke selection and assessment criteria for staff in women’s prisons and developed bespoke staff training for staff working with female prisoners which is being rolled out across the women’s estate;

o implemented a gender-specific Offender Management in Custody model to provide each woman with dedicated support; and

o jointly commissioned a review of health and social care in the women’s estate with NHS England to better understand the health needs in the women’s estate.