The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answers on 24th November 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government how many women aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 and above, went to prison in each of the last 10 years; what was the sentence length in each case; and what type of offence was committed.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con): The attached tables [on Hansard] show data on the numbers of women convicted by offence type and the length of sentence from 2011 to 2020 for those aged 18 to 24 and above 25 years of age.
The Female Offender Strategy set out the Government’s vision of fewer women offending and reoffending; fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, with a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully; and where prison is necessary, better conditions for those in custody.
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government what was the ethnic breakdown of women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, for each of the last 10 years.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The attached tables [on Hansard] show the numbers of female prisoners aged 18 to 24, and 25 years or above, broken down by ethnicity on 30 June for each year between 2012 to 2021.
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government what is the average number of miles that women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, are held from their home address.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: As of 5th November 2021, 308 women aged 18-24 years old were held on average 41.7 miles away from their origin address; 2,903 aged 25 and over were held on average 45.6 miles away from their origin address.
In instances where no address was recorded in the central database, an offender’s committal court address has been used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. Of a total population of 3,232 women, 21 did not have a home address or suitable court address recorded. These prisoners are typically foreign nationals or those recently received into custody.
This information has been drawn from administrative IT systems, which as with any large scale recording system are subject to possible error with data entry and processing.
The Female Offender Strategy set out the Government’s vision of fewer women offending and reoffending; fewer women in custody, especially on short-term sentences, with a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully; and where prison is necessary, better conditions for those in custody.
In January we announced that new facilities, designed to meet the specific needs of women, will be built in existing prisons to increase availability of single cells and improve conditions as part of the 18,000 additional prison places programme. These places will enable us to hold more women closer to home and their families.
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government what provision is available to women prisoners aged 18 to 24 for (1) education, and (2) training; and at what age the provision changes.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: As set out in the Women’s Policy Framework, all women in prison are given the opportunity to access appropriate education, learning, skills (including parenting skills), and employment. Access to education and training is the same for adult male and female prisoners. Provision does not alter based on age except for those in the youth estate, where the delivery and access to education is a statutory requirement for all children in custody and a key element of the youth custody provision.
As a result of the Education and Employment Strategy significant changes to the delivery arrangements for prison education took full effect from April 2019. As of that date, governors have control of their establishment’s education budgets, determine the curriculum on offer and how it is structured and organised, and decide on education providers. This allows governors of women’s prisons to tailor provision based on the needs of their population.
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government how many disabled women have been imprisoned aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, in each of the last 10 years.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The requested information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Self-declared information on disability is held on a national database, however, it is of mixed quality over the period requested and the dataset does not include information on when individuals entered custody. Obtaining the information would require matching around 500,000 records with those on another database.
Every prison in England and Wales must adhere to the Equality Act 2010, including the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled persons. Support is also provided for all prisoners with a disability in accordance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government how many women in prison aged (1) 18 to 24, and (2) 25 years or older, have previously been in local authority care in each of the last 10 years.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is committed to meeting the needs of all vulnerable offenders, including those who have previously been in local authority care. All individuals who come into contact with the criminal justice system need to be able to access the right support to help them engage with their sentence.
HMPPS has a Strategy for Care Experienced People which is based on the assessment of needs specific to this group. The strategy focuses on, identifying people with care experience, and collaborative working with local authorities and other organisations, helping individuals to receive the necessary support.
HMPPS holds a limited amount of the information requested. Since 2015, as part of the basic custody screening interview, we have recorded the answers of all new prisoners coming into custody as to whether they have been in the care of local authority children’s services at any time. The information is purely self-declared.
| Age when BCS Part 1 Completed | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 YTD |
| Age 18 to 24 | 244 | 244 | 203 | 187 | 184 | 119 | 68 |
| Age 25 or over | 745 | 813 | 710 | 720 | 689 | 492 | 254 |
The data for 2021 is up to and including 30 June which is the most recent date for which it can be verified. It should be noted that individual prisoners admitted to custody on separate occasions in different years could be included more than once in this data.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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