The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the remand status and outcome of defendants in England and Wales at magistrates’ courts in the Remands: Magistrates' Court data tool: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987718/remands-magistrates-court-tool-2020.xlsx and at Crown Court in the Remands: Crown Court data tool here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987720/remands-crown-court-tool-2020.xlsx.

The data requested is in the tables below:

Table 1: Number of female defendents with remand status of custody at magistrates' court and outcome of immediate custody, England and Wales, 2016-2020*

Source: Remands: Magistrates' Court data tool (Ministry of Justice: Data & Analysis)

Table 2: Number of female defendents with remand status of custody at Crown Court and outcome of immediate custody, England and Wales, 2016-2020*

Source: Remands: Remands: Crown Court data tool (Ministry of Justice: Data & Analysis)

Notes

*Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.

The IPP Action Plan is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is responsive to the needs of those serving IPP sentences, whether in prison or in the community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, and in accordance with measures mandated in the interests of public health, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) implemented exceptional delivery models which inevitably had some impact on all operational work. A large number of IPP prisoners have been released each year since the IPP Action Plan was first introduced in 2016, and the Plan will be refreshed, reviewed and republished after careful consideration of the forthcoming Justice Select Committee’s Report and recommendations.

HL7157 & HL7158:

HMPPS operate four Progression Regimes in closed, adult male category C prisons which provide opportunities for parole-eligible prisoners who are not making anticipated progress, and particularly prioritise places for those serving an IPP sentence. The first Progression Regime opened at HMP Warren Hill in December 2014. Following the success of the Regime at HMP Warren Hill, a further three Progression Regimes were opened in 2018 at HMP The Humber, Erlestoke and Buckley Hall.

The following table shows the number of prisoners in England and Wales subject to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences that have been (1) received into, and (2) released from, Progression Regimes in each year since 2017.

* Progression Regimes opened at HMPs Erlestoke, Humber and Buckley Hall.

These data have been drawn from local spreadsheets and databases held by the Progression Regimes, as national data systems can only capture movement for a whole prison, rather than individual units within a prison. As with any large scale recording systems, the figures are subject to possible errors with data migration and processing.

The total capacity of the Progression Regimes was 202 in 2017, with only the Progression Regime at HMP Warren Hill operational at that time. This number rose to 350 spaces (202 in HMP Warren Hill, 40 in HMP Erlestoke, 48 in HMP Humber and 60 in HMP Buckley Hall) with the opening of the three additional Progression Regime sites by the end of 2018. In 2019 a further 40 places were opened in HMP Erlestoke, however last year one of their Progression Regime units closed, affecting their number of places. This unit is being replaced with a new one later this year.

HL7160:

Psychology reviews for IPP prisoners commenced in 2016 and targeted those serving IPP sentences where no progress had been made to either open conditions or release despite 2 or more post tariff parole reviews. In 2019, the cohort was widened to incorporate IPP prisoners with tariffs of fewerless than 2 years. In 2021, the cohort was again expanded to include all those 5 or more years post tariff irrespective of whether they had been to open prison previously, those serving IPP sentences for non-sexual and non-violent offences, and those serving IPP sentences for robbery.

The following table shows the number of IPP psychology reviews completed for eligible IPP prisoners, as described above, each year since 2016. The high figure in 2016 reflects the fact that a large proportion of those eligible had their reviews in the first year the central reviews were introduced:

HL7161:

HMPPS Women’s Estate Psychology Services have implemented an indeterminate sentence prisoners strategy which includes the IPP cohort. The overarching goal of the strategy is to ensure that all are supported to progress through their prison sentences as quickly as possible. Psychologists regularly review cases and work with prison and probation colleagues to remove barriers to progression and expedite completion of interventions and services.

HL7216:

The following table shows the number of prisoners subject to IPP sentences that have had two or more post-tariff parole reviews with no progression to (1) open conditions, or (2) release, in each year since 2017:

*Caveats:

1. The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

2. These figures include both the recalled and unreleased IPP populations.

HL7217 & HL7218:

The following data are produced from service provider returns and, whilst quality assured, are subject to reporter error. As of 31 December 2021 there were 4,869 people with IPP sentences who had been identified as meeting the screening criteria for the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway. OPD pathway screening is an administrative activity which does not necessarily mean someone needs a specific intervention to address a personality disorder. Such a need would be identified when the prisoner’s probation officer reviews the prisoner’s sentence plan to take account of the OPD pathway screening.

Of those identified as meeting the screening criteria, 2,780 are currently in custody (with 1,200 of these in custody on recall).

From 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2021, a total of 1,892 offenders serving IPP sentences have been referred to OPD Services as follows:

To note: in the breakdown of protected characteristics below, some categories have been merged where necessary to avoid the risk of identifying individual offenders.

By Age:

By Ethnicity:

By Sex:

These figures are routinely published as part of the OMSQ Prison Population Data Tool (published as part of Offender Management Statistics Quarterly): https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly.

As of 31 December 2021 (latest available published data), the population of each female prison, split by requested age categories, was as follows:

The requested data on use of force incidents is available for the 12 month periods ending March 2019 to March 2021. This is detailed in the attached Excel spreadsheet.

Every use of physical force is reviewed, and prison officers receive appropriate training to ensure that it is only used when necessary, reasonable and proportionate.

My Lords, our vision is that no female offender who is subject to probation supervision will be released from prison homeless. Building on the success of our Covid emergency scheme, last July we introduced a transitional accommodation service for prison leavers in five regions, and we are expanding it further. We hold the system to account through ambitious accommodation targets set out in the target operating model that we introduced last year.

My Lords, it is very clear that many women end up in circumstances where perpetrators of abuse exploit and take advantage of them if they are not in safe and secure housing. One recent study has shown that, overwhelmingly, a number of those women in prison have previously been subjected to abuse and, therefore, suffer trauma. Is not the priority, therefore, to ensure that there is more trauma-informed work available to work with women, so that they do not enter the criminal justice system?

My Lords, we know that, sadly, a large number of women in prison were victims of domestic abuse before they started their sentence. This makes leaving to live in safe and secure housing vitally important—but equally important is psychological support. What are the Government doing to ensure that specialist mental health support and mentoring are available for all women leaving prison for as long as they need it?

My Lords, the Minister in answer to my noble friend’s question said that his vision was that no women prisoners should be homeless. We have seen from the questions of noble Lords, and from the noble Baroness, Lady Sater, my former colleague, the breadth of the problems that women prisoners face when they come out of prison. Can the Minister say something about how he will monitor the impact of the Government’s policy to see that this integrated support, which is the only way in which to prevent reoffending, is actually working?

My Lords, I declare an interest as head of the Sikh prison chaplaincy service. Prison chaplains can play an important role in rehabilitation. Does the Minister agree that smaller faiths should have the same access to prisoners, in education, pastoral care and so on, as the larger faiths?

Tabled by

Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in releasing women from prison into safe and secure housing; and what assessment they have made of what constitutes a satisfactory accommodation outcome for women released from prison.

My Lords, that is well and good—I am grateful to the Minister—but while it is good to know that some progress has been made, there are still problems. The accommodation service is in place in only five of the 11 probation regions of England and Wales, and there has been no commitment to timelines or to safe and secure housing specifically for women. Some 77% of women left one prison without any safe and secure housing; one was provided with a tent. The service provides temporary housing for only 12 weeks. Can the Minister give some commitment on timing for rollout and on what the Government will do for vulnerable prison leavers after 12 weeks? Can he indicate how support will reflect the particular needs of women?

My Lords, as my noble friend has just illustrated, there are wide discrepancies in the ways in which homelessness is measured for women leaving prison between the Prison Service and the independent monitoring board at Bronzefield. I am grateful that the Government recognise that something needs to be done about this to give confidence in the figures. Can the Minister say when we can expect a set of robust categories to be in place, on which everyone can agree?

My Lords, the disparity between government figures and those of the independent monitoring board is because we do not have one standard measure of what acceptable accommodation for prison leavers looks like. It is not a sofa, and it is not a tent. Will the Minister commit to facilitating the production of one standard measure? What we do not measure, we cannot manage.

My Lords, Friday releases from prison, in particular, are hugely problematic. This is particularly the case for geographically dispersed women’s prisons, because women cannot travel home in time to make a housing application with their local authority before the office closes. Are the Government aware of this specific problem, and can they offer any solutions as to what can be done to overcome it?

Statistics on the diversity of judicial office holders are published annually, alongside statistics on members of the legal professions and those applying for judicial appointments. The 2021 ‘Diversity of the Judiciary’ statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2021-statistics) record that as at 1 April 2021, in England and Wales there were:

• 1,119 female court judges – 34% of total.
• 870 female tribunal judges – 49% of the total (this includes judges of the UK tribunals, some of whom may sit mainly in Scotland or Northern Ireland).
• 1,989 total female judges (39%).

We recognise that more progress is required to achieve a gender-balanced judiciary. The Lord Chancellor is a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF) and works closely with the Lord Chief Justice, Chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) and other members of the JDF, including the three relevant legal professional bodies, to address barriers to achieving greater gender balance in the judiciary. In December 2021, JDF members published their updated action plan, which sets out actions to support greater diversity in the judiciary at every stage; from the legal profession to the judiciary itself.

Our vision is that no one who is subject to probation supervision is released from prison homeless.

Women on remand are supported to meet resettlement needs and prepare for release by Probation staff in prisons. We will supplement this support from Probation staff with access to specialist accommodation support for all women on remand or sentenced in custody by the summer of this year.

We currently provide a Community Accommodation Service (CAS3), which provides temporary accommodation for sentenced women at risk of homelessness upon release from prison, in five probation regions and aim to expand this to all regions across England and Wales.

In 2021, we introduced Housing Specialists in twenty prisons, including four women’s prisons, to support prisons and probation in their strategic response to reducing homelessness. We intend to increase these to 48 across England and Wales, including across the women’s estate.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched their Accommodation for Ex-Offenders (AFEO) scheme in July 2021 to support offenders at risk of homelessness into private rental tenancies. Overall, this financial year, £13 million has been allocated to 87 schemes across 145 local authorities.

To ensure consistent and accurate data recording, HMPPS, in collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and the Welsh Government, has recently updated the Accommodation Recording Guidance to ensure Probation regions have a clear and consistent understanding of the accommodation status definitions, and how to record accurately. The Guidance defines homelessness as where an individual is rough sleeping, squatting, residing in night shelters, emergency hostels or campsites. Individuals with other forms of temporary, short-term or otherwise unstable accommodation are encompassed by the ‘unsettled accommodation’ category in published statistics.

Accommodation circumstances for offenders are reported annually as official statistics. Data for the period 01 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 will be published in July 2022 in the Community Performance Annual report.

Our vision is that no one who is subject to probation supervision is released from prison homeless.

Women on remand are supported to meet resettlement needs and prepare for release by Probation staff in prisons. We will supplement this support from Probation staff with access to specialist accommodation support for all women on remand or sentenced in custody by the summer of this year.

We currently provide a Community Accommodation Service (CAS3), which provides temporary accommodation for sentenced women at risk of homelessness upon release from prison, in five probation regions and aim to expand this to all regions across England and Wales.

In 2021, we introduced Housing Specialists in twenty prisons, including four women’s prisons, to support prisons and probation in their strategic response to reducing homelessness. We intend to increase these to 48 across England and Wales, including across the women’s estate.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched their Accommodation for Ex-Offenders (AFEO) scheme in July 2021 to support offenders at risk of homelessness into private rental tenancies. Overall, this financial year, £13 million has been allocated to 87 schemes across 145 local authorities.

To ensure consistent and accurate data recording, HMPPS, in collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and the Welsh Government, has recently updated the Accommodation Recording Guidance to ensure Probation regions have a clear and consistent understanding of the accommodation status definitions, and how to record accurately. The Guidance defines homelessness as where an individual is rough sleeping, squatting, residing in night shelters, emergency hostels or campsites. Individuals with other forms of temporary, short-term or otherwise unstable accommodation are encompassed by the ‘unsettled accommodation’ category in published statistics.

Accommodation circumstances for offenders are reported annually as official statistics. Data for the period 01 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 will be published in July 2022 in the Community Performance Annual report.

Data on settled accommodation for supervised women prison leavers from 2017/18 to 2019/20 is currently recorded and published in the Community Performance Statistics on gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics#community-performance-statistics). Data for 2020/21 will be published in July.

To ensure consistent and accurate data recording, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), in collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and the Welsh Government, has recently updated the Accommodation Recording Guidance to ensure probation regions have a clear and consistent understanding of the accommodation status definitions, and how to record accurately. The Guidance defines homelessness as where an individual is rough sleeping, squatting, residing in night shelters, emergency hostels or campsites. Individuals with other forms of temporary, short-term or otherwise unstable accommodation are encompassed within the ‘unsettled accommodation’ category in published statistics.

Our Prisons Strategy White Paper sets out our vision that no-one subject to probation supervision is released from prison homeless.

To achieve this, HMPPS launched a new transitional accommodation service providing up to 12 weeks’ accommodation and support for those leaving prison at risk of homelessness. The service was launched last July in five probation areas in England. From 2024-5, we will spend £200m per year to reduce reoffending, including expanding the provision to support the thousands of people across England and Wales who leave prison each year without accommodation. The service takes account of the needs of women with accommodation provision dedicated to single gender usage as required.

DLUHC launched their Accommodation for Ex-Offenders (AFEO) scheme on 28 July 2021 to support offenders at risk of homelessness into private rental tenancies. Overall, this financial year, £13 million has been allocated to 87 schemes across 145 local authorities. Combined with our temporary accommodation service, this builds a pathway from prison to settled accommodation.