Select committee: Justice Committee
Recommendation 17
First Report - Women in Prison
Published 26 Jul 2022
Paragraph 102
Addressed to Ministry of Justice
Justice Committee Women in Prison All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Committee notes the concerns raised by witnesses that the commitment to build 500 prison places in the female estate appears at odds with the aims of the Female Offender Strategy. However, we also recognise that the 500 additional prison places have the potential to improve custodial conditions for those who are imprisoned, as well as going some way towards achieving the Strategy’s aim of making the female estate more trauma informed. We would welcome further clarity on the Government’s plans for the 500 places. The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS should set out: • A breakdown of how the 500 prison places will be used. For example, how many places will be allocated as open prison places; how many places will be allocated to replace old for new prison places and how many will be entirely new places in the closed estate; • How many old prison places in the female estate have been decommissioned since the announcement of 500 new places, and how many it anticipates will be decommissioned in the coming years; • How many new prison places have already been built, and what the timeline is for completing the construction of the remaining places; and • The modelling the MoJ and HMPPS undertook to determine that 500 places were needed.
From: Justice Committee, First Report - Women in Prison (HC 265), paragraph 102, 26 July 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 21 October 2022 (deadline 26 September 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government accepts most of the Committee's recommendations on women in prison, but states it does not accept three: mandatory full written pre-sentence reports, new data collection on custody as a place of safety, and a cross-department accommodation strategy.
- On pre-sentence reports, the government says it "does not accept" making full written reports mandatory for women facing custody, stating the court must already request one "unless it considers it to be unnecessary". A pilot evaluation is to be published in 2023.
- It does not accept the recommendation to collect data on custody as a place of safety, saying a cross-agency group found "no robust source of data" and the focus is on implementing reforms in the draft Mental Health Bill.
- It does not accept the call for a cross-department accommodation strategy "because this is already being delivered through other means", citing the Prisons Strategy White Paper and Beating Crime Plan.
- On new prison capacity, it states the new facilities "will aim to provide 456 additional places" across five women's prisons, with the first women expected in the new facilities "in early 2025".