Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
The £9.5 million for grants for community services compares with £200 million the Ministry has...
Conclusion
The £9.5 million for grants for community services compares with £200 million the Ministry has committed to spend on an extra 500 prison places for women due to increases in police numbers.19 We asked stakeholders how far the £200 million would stretch if it were spent on community services and what the results would be. They told 8 Q 1 9 C&AG’s Report, para 20 10 Q 29 11 Q 79 12 Q 58 13 Q 80 14 Q 58 15 Female Offender Strategy, Ministry of Justice, 2018, paras 11 and 12 16 Q 44 17 Q 28; C&AG’s Report para 3.3 18 C&AG’s Report, paras 2.10, 2.11 19 Qq 32, 34–35 Improving outcomes for women in the criminal justice system 11 us it would be transformational. Women in Prison told us that Ministry funding could be used to stimulate funding from other public bodies and philanthropists, and that with that amount of funding there could potentially be a women’s centre in every local authority.20 It said it had not done the analysis for this but they hoped that the Government had. The Howard League for Penal Reform said the money could be spent on “…all kinds of different ways that would stop women offending in the first place and provide real solutions to solve their problems.” Anawim told us that the cost of a women’s centre supporting a women in the community is between £1,000 and £4,000 per woman. The average annual cost of a women’s prison place is £52,000.21
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
2.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 2.2 It is not possible to estimate a counterfactual to determine where an alternative intervention may have been respectively more successful. In addition, it would not be appropriate for the government to do so given that the police, Crown Prosecution Service and judiciary are all independent and responsible for decisions relating to arrest, charge and sentencing. 2.3 As an alternative, the department has instead estimated the number of women that could be supported through women’s services as a result of the funding available.