Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made the development a national concordat on female offenders.

In the Female Offender Strategy, published in June 2018, we committed to publish a National Concordat on Female Offenders. We are making good progress and aim to publish the Concordat in the next few months. On 6 February, we held a workshop with members of the Advisory Board on Female Offenders where we shared our current working draft. We received many helpful comments and constructive feedback and are revising the document to take those suggestions into account.

The Concordat will set out how national organisations as well as local partners and services should be working together in partnership to identify and respond to the often multiple and complex needs of women who are in contact with, or at risk of coming into contact with, the criminal justice system.