Recommendation 16

The Ministry decided not to set targets because achieving them would be reliant on bodies independent of the Ministry, including other government departments and the judiciary.47 We asked the Ministry about the impact of this decision on cross-government working.48 It told us that Ministers across government are reviewing what outcomes they want to see and how best to measure progress towards them and that the new cross- departmental Women in the CJS and at risk of entering the CJS board (chaired by a Justice Minister) is working on what these measures will look like. The Ministry accepted that the female offender programme had not been tightly governed but said that had now changed.49 It told us that the new board is focusing on ensuring it has the right programme in place and on measuring outcomes.50