Prisoners: Females

(asked on 5th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of progress in reducing the women’s prison population since June 2018 publication of the Female Offender Strategy; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Edward Argar Portrait
Edward Argar
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question was answered on 28th June 2019

In the Female Offender Strategy, we set out our vision to see fewer women in custody, particularly on short custodial sentences and to see more women supported in the community. The strategy launched an ambitious programme of work which will take several years to deliver. So far, we have published a new Women’s Policy Framework, Lord Farmer’s Review for Women and invested £5m to support community provision for female offenders and women at risk of offending

We are committed to monitoring progress over time and taking action to deliver the outcomes we set out to achieve. The latest published statistics show that the total female prison population increased slightly (by 1%) between March 2018 and 2019, but that female first receptions have decreased by 10% over the past year, (from 2,036 between October and December 2017 to 1,840 over the same period in 2018).

The published data setting out the current and previous female prison population can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/796904/population-31-march-2019.ods

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