Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of pregnant women held in prison between 2023 and 2024 were on remand.

The HMPPS Annual Digest 2023/2024 reports a total number of 229 self-declared pregnant prisoners recorded between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

Custody type data were available for 91% of these prisoners, 71 (34%) of which were found to be on remand when their pregnancy was declared to HMPPS.[1][2]

There are now dedicated Pregnancy and Mother and Baby Liaison Officers in all women’s prisons as well as mandated multidisciplinary care planning for pregnant women.

The Lord Chancellor announced the creation of a Women’s Justice Board to address the distinct needs of women in the criminal justice system. The Board will have the goal of fewer women in prison and more supported in the community. It will initially focus on early intervention; community solutions including residential alternatives to custody; and improving outcomes for young adult women, and pregnant women and mothers of young children.

Whilst there will always be some, including those who are pregnant, who need to be in custody, we must ensure they are given the best chance possible to tackle the drivers of their offending and to contribute meaningfully to society.

Notes:

[1] Due to different data collection methods we have considered a matching record to be the closest remand record within 7 days of the first pregnancy declaration date.

[2] The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.