Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on the development of a pilot of residential women’s centres in at least five sites across England and Wales.

The Female Offender Strategy committed to develop a ‘residential women’s centre’ pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales.

We believe that these models could improve outcomes for female offenders and reduce the number of women entering and re-entering custody on short custodial sentences. We have concluded our first phase of consultation with stakeholders, partners and providers to inform our scoping.

We are considering how best to take this project forward.