Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women were known to be pregnant in HMP Bronzefield in each quarter from September 2020 to June 2021.

On 20 September the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published a new policy on pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units and maternal separation from children up to the age of two in women’s prisons, which contains a range of reforms for improving the care of pregnant women. As part of the new policy, we have increased central data collection on self-declared pregnancies in women’s prisons. We are also publishing annual snapshots in the HMPPS Annual Digest. The first publication, covering July 2020-April 2021, shows that on average 26 women self-declared as pregnant across the women’s estate each week.

Whilst Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) is a national policy used across both privately managed prisons (PMPs) and public sector prisons, information within each PMP in relation to how, who, how many and why people are on an ACCT is held solely by providers and is not routinely held or collected by HM Prison and Probation Service Controllers’ Office/MoJ.

The number of pregnant women in HMP Bronzefield in each quarter, between January 2019 and December 2020, is provided below.

It is not possible for the weekly snapshots published in the HMPPS Annual Digest to be accurately converted into quarters.