Asked by: Victoria Prentis (Conservative - Banbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the use of short prison sentences for women.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In June 2018, we published the Female Offender Strategy which set out the Government’s aim to see fewer women in custody, especially on short term sentences. There is persuasive evidence that many women, particularly on short custodial sentences, can be better supported in the community on robust and effective community sentences.
The Strategy set out a new programme of work to improve outcomes for female offenders and shift our emphasis from custody to the community. This included a £5m investment in community provision for female offenders over 2018/19 and 2019/20. We awarded £3.3m to 12 organisations last November, and on 23 January we announced a further £1.6m, which will benefit 17 organisations and 83 female rape support centres.
We consider that the availability of intensive residential support packages, both at the point of sentencing and on release, is one important element in achieving the changes we want to see. We are therefore committed to working with local and national partners to develop a ‘residential women’s centre’ pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales.
The Strategy is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/female-offender-strategy.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women were sentenced to prison for less than (a) one month, (b) three months and (c) six months in the first six months of 2018 by Home Office offence code.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The total number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody from January to June 2018 for (a) less than 1 month, (b) 1 month to less than 3 months and (c) 3 months to 6 months, broken down by Home Office offence code, can be viewed in Table 1.
Table 2 and Table 3 break this information down by men and women respectively.
Sentencing is a matter for our independent courts, who take into account all circumstances of the case, including any aggravating and mitigating factors.
Whilst there is persuasive evidence that short custodial sentences do not help some offenders turn their backs on crime, protecting the public will always be our top priority. Under this government, the most serious offenders are more likely to go to prison, and for longer, helping protect the public and keep communities safe.
Our message is simple – if you commit a serious offence, you should expect to go to prison. We will not reduce the prison population just to save money.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women were sentenced to prison for less than (a) two weeks, (b) one month, (c) three months, (d) six months, (e) one year; and how many women were given a custodial sentence in 2017.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to doing all we can to address the issues around female offending so we can better protect the public and deliver more effective rehabilitation.
The number of women sentenced to prison for less than two weeks, two weeks to less than one month, one month to less than three months, three months to less than six months, six months to less than one year, one year or more and overall for 2017 can be viewed in the table below.
Number of females sentenced to immediate custody by sentence length in 2017(1)(2) |
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Sentence length | Total |
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Less than 2 weeks | 246 |
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2 weeks to less than 1 month | 1,547 |
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1 month to less than 3 months | 2,197 |
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3 months to less than 6 months | 933 |
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6 months to less than 12 months | 625 |
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12 months or more | 1,688 |
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Total | 7,236 |
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Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services - Ministry of Justice |
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Ref: PQ 165645 |
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(1) Data are given on a principal disposal basis - i.e. reporting the most severe sentence for the principal offence. | |||||||||||
(2) Data relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. | |||||||||||
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer to Question 137612 on Prisoners: Females, how many of the 2,271 sentenced women in prison for non-violent crimes received sentences of (a) less than 1 month, (b) less than 3 months, (c) less than 6 months, (d) less than 12 months, and (e) 12 months or more.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Pursuant to the answer to Question 137612, the number of women held in custody for non-violent crimes as at 31 March 2018, disaggregated according to sentence length is given below.
Sentenced female prison population by sentence length, non-violent crimes | ||
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Less than 1 month | 12 |
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1 month to less than 3 months | 110 |
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3 months to less than 6 months | 177 |
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6 months to less than 12 months | 170 |
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12 months or more | 1536 |
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Indeterminate sentence | 37 |
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Recalls | 181 |
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Sentence length not recorded | 48 |
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Total | 2271 |
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Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services - Ministry of Justice. | ||
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women were sent to immediate custody from the (a) the Crown Court and (b) magistrates' courts for sentences (i) below 6 months and (ii) above 6 months in each police force area in England and Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The number of custodial sentences issued to female offenders in England and Wales, by court type and police force area from 2012 to 2016, can be viewed in the attached Tables 1 to 5. The data for 2017 will be published on 17 May 2018.
We are committed to doing all we can to address the issues around female offending so we can better protect the public and deliver more effective rehabilitation. That is why we will set out a strategy for female offenders, to improve outcomes and services for women in both the community and custody.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost to the public purse has been of women serving prison sentences for non-violent crimes since 1 January 2018.
Answered by Phillip Lee
At 31 March 2018, there were 2,271 sentenced females in the prison population for non-violent crimes (everything but violence against the person) and an additional 445 on remand. This information is publicly available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2017.
Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS), does not calculate separately the average cost of prisoners by any type of offence. However, HMPPS routinely publishes average costs per prisoner, costs per prison place and overall prison unit costs for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales, including all categories of the women’s estate. This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year.
The most recent published figures, for financial year 2016-17, can be accessed on the www.gov.uk website from the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-statistics-2016-to-2017. Prison unit costs can be found within the Excel document Costs per prison place and cost per prisoner by individual prison establishment in the ‘Cost by Establishment’ tab.
The courts have a range of sentences at their disposal including community sentences, suspended sentences, fines and custodial sentences. Custodial sentences are reserved for the most serious offences. Women diverted from custody and into community sentences, also have an associated cost to the taxpayer.
Asked by: Kate Green (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women are still held in prison on indeterminate public protection sentences by (a) offence and (b) original length of sentence.
Answered by Phillip Lee
As of 31 December 20171, 74 women IPPs are being held in prison. Out of these, 54 have never been released by the independent Parole Board and 20 are in prison after being recalled (and they can be released only on a direction from the parole board).
Those unreleased are serving sentences for the following offences:
Offence Group | Count |
Violence against the person | 25 |
Sexual offences | 8 |
Robbery | 7 |
Theft Offences | 1 |
Criminal damage and arson | 13 |
All | 54 |
Those unreleased received the following minimum tariffs:
Tariff Length | Count |
Less than 2 years | 15 |
2 years to less than or equal to 4 years | 26 |
Greater than 4 years to less than or equal to 6 years | 7 |
Greater than 6 years to less than or equal to 10 years | 6 |
All | 54 |
Between 2010 and 20171 a total of 40 women IPPs have been recalled.
Public protection is our priority and offenders on licence must comply with a strict set of conditions. If any offender breaches his or her licence conditions, he or she is liable to be recalled immediately to prison.
The independent Parole Board will continue to assess rigorously all tariff-expired IPP prisoners, in order to determine whether they are safe to be released.
1By statistics code of practice, we cannot provide data for the most recent quarter as we have declared intention to publish such information next week.
The figures provided are for offenders recalled from 2010 to 2017 whose first releases were directed by the Parole Board. Information datasets held by the department do not record the data in this format prior to 2010. The figures may include offenders recalled more than once across multiple years but not within years. The figures in these tables 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. Recall reasons do not sum to the total number of recalls as more than one reason can be recorded against each recall.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women received custodial sentence in 2017, by each Home Office offence code.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The number of women who received a custodial sentence in 2015 and 2016 in England and Wales can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/685050/experimental-statistics-by-ho-offence-code.zip
Select and open “Experimental statistics – proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code”. The requested figures can be found in the immediate custody column with the results split by gender using the gender column.
Court proceedings data for 2017 are planned for publication in May 2018.
We are committed to doing all we can to address the issues around female offending so we can better protect the public and deliver more effective rehabilitation. That is why we plan to set out a strategy for female offenders, to improve outcomes and services for women in both the community and custody. Custodial sentences are reserved for the most serious offences and as a last resort.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the recidivism rates for female prisoners who received (a) custodial prison sentences and (b) community supervision orders was by offence category as used in his Department's offender management statistics in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The reoffending rates for adult females released from custody and starting community orders by index offence between January 2010 and March 2016 can be found in the attached table.
Please note that the index offence categories in the attached tables are the same as the prison population tables, not the community order offence categories in the probation tables, in the offender management statistics.
There are no clear trends for the reoffending rates of women released from prison or starting community orders broken down by index offence categories. Any large fluctuations seen in the data are due to the small number of offenders in the individual three month cohorts.
We plan to set out a strategy for female offenders in due course, to improve outcomes and services for women in both the community and custody.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) male and (b) female young offenders who were resident in Wales at the time of their sentence are serving sentences in England.
Answered by Phillip Lee
Of the prison population serving sentences in prisons in England on 31 December 2017, who were resident in Wales at the time of their sentence, there were:
6 females aged 18-20
12 males aged 15-17
48 males ages 18-20
Around 97% of prisoners have an origin location - i.e. addresses that are recorded in our central IT system. If no address is given, an offender’s committal court address is used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. Those with no recorded origin are typically foreign nationals or those recently received into custody. No address has been recorded and no court information is available for around 3% of all offenders. If there are any, these figures will have been excluded from the data.
The numerical information provided has been drawn from administrative IT systems, which as with any large scale recording system are subject to possible error with data entry and processing.