Extract from Justice Questions in the House of
Commons
(Portsmouth South) (Lab)
1. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding
for women’s centres to rehabilitate female offenders. [912593]
The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice ()
I start by saying how deeply upsetting it was to hear of the
recent tragic incident at HMP Bronzefield. It was a terrible
incident, and my thoughts are with all those who have been
affected. As would be expected, there are a number of ongoing
investigations, including an investigation by the police.
The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight the important role of
women’s centres in providing holistic support to vulnerable
women. This approach forms part of our female offender strategy,
which announced a £5 million investment in community provision
for women from 2018 to 2020. As we take forward the strategy, we
are committed to ensuring sufficient funding for female
offenders.
Almost half of all women sent to prison are homeless, up
significantly in the past few years. Does the Minister really
believe that this Government’s approach of failing to properly
fund women’s centres is working?
Of course it is important that we look after all our offenders,
and we have a particular strategy in relation to female
offenders. We not only want to ensure they get adequate care in
prison, but we are also intervening early to try to prevent women
from entering the justice system at all.
(Colne Valley) (Lab)
Our local women’s centre, which supports many women in my
constituency, helped 850 individual women in 2017-18. Currently,
though, there is no core Government funding to help these women.
Does the Minister agree that funding early intervention to
support vulnerable women would prevent future crises and future
pressure on the justice system?
I pay tribute to the centre’s work, which I am sure is important
to the hon. Lady’s local community. There is funding from a
variety of sources for women’s centres and, as I mentioned, it is
something we will be looking at very carefully as we develop the
female strategy. We have funded a number of very valuable women’s
centres over the past year, including the Sunflower Centre in
Plymouth and a new women’s centre in York.
(Leeds East) (Lab)
Two thirds of women sent to prison get sentences of less than six
months. Such sentences are proven to lead to more reoffending,
and so create more victims of crime than tried and tested
alternatives such as women’s centres. The Justice Secretary and
his team know this, but they have chosen to ignore the evidence.
Will the Minister tell the House today how many crimes her
Department’s own research shows will be prevented by investing in
such alternatives to ineffective short prison sentences?
We are very interested in looking at alternatives to prison
sentences. Although we want the most serious offenders who commit
serious violence and sexual crimes to spend the appropriate time
in prison, we want to ensure there are sentences on offer in
which the judiciary have confidence and that will turn people’s
lives around. We are already working to improve the quality of
information that sentencers receive about community sentencing
options, including, for example, whether an offender is a primary
caregiver and is pregnant or has given birth in the previous six
months, so they can take that into account and give the
appropriate sentence.
To help with that answer: the Government’s own research says that
investment in alternatives would see more than 30,000 fewer
crimes every year, an answer the Minister omitted, yet the Tories
are deliberately choosing to ignore the evidence and are failing
to invest properly in women’s centres and other proven
alternatives. Instead, they are chasing “hang ’em and flog ’em”
headlines, thinking that will help them win the coming general
election. Luckily, the British people are not the mugs they are
trying to take them for.
Does the Minister agree with her own Department’s report from
July, which notes a
“statistically significant increase in proven reoffending”
for those on short sentences rather than effective community
alternatives? If so, will she act on it?
I think the hon. Gentleman failed to listen to my previous answer
on the importance the Government place on appropriate sentences
and on our particular strategy for female offenders. I was at HMP
Send a few weeks ago, and I saw how we are turning people’s lives
around in prison. I met a woman who was due for a parole
hearing—she is a lifer who has served 10 years—and she told me
that she is not actually ready to be released because of the
amazing support she is getting through the therapeutic community
in her prison. For the first time, she is realising the
consequences of her actions. We are absolutely committed to
ensuring that women get the right sentences and the right
provision in the community and in the prisons.
