Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many women are currently being held in prison for non-violent offences; and what proportion of female prisoners have children who have been taken into care as a result of their custody.

Please find below a breakdown of the sentenced female prison population by main offence group, as of the latest published population snapshot.

Table 1: Sentenced female prison population by main offence group, as at 31 March 2024

We have provided a table for the sentenced female population, but information on the female remand population [split by 'untried' and 'convicted unsentenced'] by offence group this can be found here: Prison-population-31-Mar-2024.ods (live.com).

We do not hold information on the number of children taken into care as a result of maternal imprisonment, however we are working to improve our understanding of the impact of maternal imprisonment on children. For example, on 18 July 2024 we published analysis looking into the number of parents in prison with children and the number of children with parents in prison. This analysis indicated that 55% of women in prison have children under 18 but did not show how many of these women had their children living with them before going to prison. We are also piloting prison-based children’s social workers in women’s prisons that support women with family court proceedings, parental rights and maintaining or strengthening family ties.