House of Commons Justice Committee Women offenders: after the Corston Report Second Report of Session 2013–14 HC 92 House of Commons Justice Committee Women offenders: after the Corston Report Second Report of Session 2013–14 Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Additional written evidence is contained in Volume II, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/justicecttee Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 3 July 2013 HC 92 [Incorporating HC 742 i–v, Session 2012–13] Published on 15 July 2013 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £23.00 The Justice Committee The Justice Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Ministry of Justice and its associated public bodies (including the work of staff provided for the administrative work of courts and tribunals, but excluding consideration of individual cases and appointments, and excluding the work of the Scotland and Wales Offices and of the Advocate General for Scotland); and administration and expenditure of the Attorney General's Office, the Treasury Solicitor's Department, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office (but excluding individual cases and appointments and advice given within government by Law Officers). Current membership Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith (Liberal Democrat, Berwick-upon-Tweed) (Chair) Steve Brine (Conservative, Winchester) Rehman Chishti (Conservative, Gillingham and Rainham) Jeremy Corbyn (Labour, Islington North) Nick de Bois (Conservative, Enfield North) Gareth Johnson (Conservative, Dartford) Rt Hon Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru, Dwyfor Meirionnydd) Andy McDonald (Labour, Middlesbrough) Seema Malhotra (Labour/Co-operative, Feltham and Heston) Yasmin Qureshi (Labour, Bolton South East) Graham Stringer (Labour, Blackley and Broughton) Mike Weatherley (Conservative, Hove) The following Members were also members of the Committee during the Parliament: Mr Robert Buckland (Conservative, South Swindon); Christopher Evans (Labour/Co-operative, Islwyn); Mrs Helen Grant (Conservative, Maidstone and The Weald); Ben Gummer (Conservative, Ipswich); Mrs Siân C James (Labour, Swansea East); Jessica Lee (Conservative, Erewash); Robert Neill (Conservative, Bromley and Chislehurst); Claire Perry (Conservative, Devizes); Mrs Linda Riordan (Labour/Co-operative, Halifax), Anna Soubry (Conservative, Broxtowe); Elizabeth Truss (Conservative, South West Norfolk) and Karl Turner (Labour, Kingston upon Hull East). Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the internet via www.parliament.uk Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the internet at www.parliament.uk/justicecttee. A list of Reports of the Committee in the present Parliament is at the back of this volume. The Reports of the Committee, the formal minutes relating to that report, oral evidence taken and some or all written evidence are available in a printed volume. Additional written evidence may be published on the internet only. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Nick Walker (Clerk), Sarah Petit (Second Clerk), Gemma Buckland (Senior Committee Specialist), Helen Kinghorn (Committee Legal Specialist), Ana Ferreira (Senior Committee Assistant), Miguel Boo Fraga (Committee Assistant), Holly Knowles (Committee Support Assistant), George Margereson (Sandwich student), and Nick Davies (Committee Media Officer). Contacts Correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Justice Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 8196 and the email address is [email protected] Women offenders: after the Corston Report 1 Contents Report Page Summary 3 1 Introduction 5 Our inquiry 5 Overview of the Corston Report 5 The Government’s response 7 Trends in women’s offending and sentencing 7 Characteristics of women who offend and those at risk of offending 8 A distinct approach 9 2 Progress since the Corston Report 11 Overview of progress 11 Governance arrangements and other drivers to implement the agenda 12 The appointment of new Ministerial champion 15 A strategy for women offenders 15 Equality duties 17 Subsequent reports 20 The Government’s strategic priorities 20 New governance arrangements 21 3 Enhancing provision in the community 24 The sentencing framework and sentencing practice 24 Use of custody for women 24 The development of a network of women’s centres 27 Other forms of women’s community provision 29 Limitations on sentencing options 30 Segmentation of women offenders 33 Sentencing guidelines 34 Gaps in provision for women offenders 37 Girls 38 Mental health 38 High risk women 39 Accommodation 39 Funding for women’s community services 42 Funding 2013-2014 42 Funding for other provision 45 Local commissioning and co-commissioning arrangements 45 4 The implications for women offenders of the Transforming Rehabilitation proposals 48 Potential opportunities 48 Potential challenges 49 The application of payment by results to services for women 50 Future funding arrangements for women’s centres 52 2 Women offenders: After the Corston Report Research evidence on which to base commissioning decisions 54 A missed opportunity to reduce the use of custody? 55 Realising the broader social benefits of a distinct approach for women 56 5 The custodial estate and regimes 59 The review of the custodial estate 59 Priorities for the review 61 Developing regimes to meet women’s needs 61 Foreign National Prisoners 65 The ethos of regimes 67 Staffing and training 68 Self-harm and deaths in custody 69 The configuration of the estate 70 Small custodial units 71 The role of Approved Premises and other forms of supported accommodation 73 6 An effective ‘whole system’ approach? 76 An integrated approach to vulnerable women and their families 76 Lessening the inter-generational impact of crime 77 Addressing the root causes of the vulnerabilities identified by Baroness Corston 78 Political courage 79 Conclusions and recommendations 81 Formal Minutes 90 Witnesses 91 List of printed written evidence 92 List of additional written evidence 92 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 94 Women offenders: after the Corston Report 3 Summary Baroness Corston’s report A review of women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system made a series of recommendations to bring about improvements in the women’s criminal justice system. Now, six years after her report, we found that it is well recognised that women face very different hurdles from men in their journey towards a law abiding life, and that responding appropriately and effectively to the problems that women bring into the criminal justice system requires a distinct approach. Our examination of developments in policy and practice over this period indicates that in the first two years of the Coalition Government there was a hiatus in efforts to make headway on implementing such an approach. We welcome the fact that, after we announced our inquiry, the Secretary of State recognised the importance of these issues, and assigned particular Ministerial responsibility for women offenders. We consider that clear leadership and a high level of support from other Ministers will be essential in restoring lost momentum. The Minister has set out four strategic priorities, which we support, and has created a new Advisory Board to work across Government and with key stakeholders in order to further these priorities. We would like to see these commitments, which appear to have been produced in haste, given greater substance and accompanied by measures of success. A key lesson still to be learnt is that tackling women’s offending is not just a matter for the justice system. We believe that there must be much more explicit recognition, including by the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Justice, Women and Equalities, of the need to focus as much on those women and girls at the periphery as those who are already involved in the system. We welcome the commitment to generate a ‘whole system’ approach to these issues but there is little to signal a radical shift in thinking about what this means. We suggest some additional safeguards to broaden cross-departmental accountability including extending full representation on the newly created Advisory Board to other relevant Government Departments and the inclusion of matters relating to women’s offending as a standing item on the agenda for the Inter-Ministerial Group on Equalities. We recommend that, once adopted, these governance arrangements are subsequently reviewed to consider whether responsibility for the overall strategic approach should transfer to the Department for Communities and Local Government. There is little evidence that the equality duty, and its forerunner the gender equality duty, have had the desired impact on systematically encouraging local mainstream commissioners to provide services tackling the underlying causes of women’s offending, or on consistently informing broader policy initiatives within the Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). Both struggle to reflect fully the distinct needs of female offenders. We are extremely disappointed