Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress his Department has made on the publication of 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 grateful to members of the Advisory Board on Female Offenders who provided many helpful comments and constructive feedback on our working draft. Publication has been delayed because of the pandemic but we now plan to publish in the next couple of months.

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.