Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Deferred
Paragraph: 47
Set out financial investment and operational timeframe for women's liaison and diversion pathways.
Recommendation
The Ministry of Justice and NHSE/I should set out what financial investment is being made in developing women’s pathways and how this money will be spent to ensure that women’s pathways are being enhanced across all liaison and diversion services. The MoJ and NHSE/I should also set out a timeframe for when they expect all women’s pathways to be fully operational.
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation but responded by outlining an ongoing process evaluation of the Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) pilot, which includes female offenders as a priority cohort, with a report to be published in 2023, instead of detailing financial investment or timeframes for L&D women's pathways.
Paragraph Reference:
47
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
We accept this recommendation. A process evaluation is underway, and a report will be published in 2023, which will include perceived impacts of the pilot on ways of working in the court. Female offenders were selected as one of the initial three priority cohorts for the pilot and ethnic minority service users have made up a proportion of the three target cohorts in the pre- sentence report (PSR) Pilot, but as of August 2022, ethnic minority service users will be explicitly included as a priority cohort in the pilot. The pilot will request more comprehensive, written PSRs rather than oral reports for these cohorts, including monitoring data relating to PSRs completed for women and ethnic minority individuals to understand better what changes may be required from both an operational and policy perspective. There is no specific target for the number of service users who will receive a written pre- sentence report under the pilot. This is informed by both the identification of cases that would benefit from a comprehensive written report and the Judiciary agreeing to that recommendation. The focus is on delivering improvement in the quality and timeliness of reports. Engagement with the judiciary through written reports and liaison meetings will include raising awareness of the specific issues faced by women who offend and provide an increased understanding of the possible implications and opportunities of sentencing.