The Bishop of Gloucester received the following written answers on 29th November 2021:
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government what age-specific training prison staff receive for working with female prisoners aged 18 to 24.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con): Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) have developed the ‘women’s estate specialist training’ (WEST) course. Its modular content is threaded throughout the apprenticeship foundation programme to offer a distinct and dedicated course, underpinned by a trauma informed approach. This forms part of the nine-week foundation period for new prison officers destined to work within the women’s estate. The first dedicated WEST course has been scheduled to take place in January 2022. This course also contains a module which focuses on young women in custody. Existing staff in the women’s estate are able to access information through ‘myLearning’ which includes the Young Adults page which is designed to be an accessible resource for all staff to understand better the needs of this age group in custody.
The Lord Bishop of Gloucester asked Her Majesty’s Government how many women aged 18 to 24 have been received into prison in each year of the past 10 years, by establishment.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The attached tables [on Hansard] show the number of first receptions of women aged 18-24 from 2011 to 2020, by establishment.
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 how many women in prison aged 18 to 20 share a cell with a woman aged over 20 years old.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: As of 12th November, there were 65 prisoners in the HM Prison and Probation Service Women’s estate who were aged between 18 and 20. Of these, fewer than five were sharing a cell with another prisoner who was aged 21 or over.
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, were pregnant while in custody in each of the last 10 years.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
On 20 September the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published a new policy on pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units and maternal separation from children up to the age of two in women’s prisons, which contains a range of reforms for improving the care of pregnant women. The policy requires increased local and central data collection on self-declared pregnant women in our care, to ensure individuals are receiving the relevant support and to ensure policy is more informed.
We publish some of this data in the HMPPS Annual Digest of statistical information. We published the first of these on 29 July 2021, which showed that during the period July 2020-April 2021 an average of 26 women self-declared as pregnant each week.
This is a dynamic area of policy and we will continue to consider our central data collection as it develops.
The Church of England in Parliament 
You must be logged in to post a comment.