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<p>The Government has made good progress in implementing the recommendations of the
Farmer Review for Women, since its publication in June 2019. Ten recommendations have
already been implemented and a further eight are expected to be completed this year.
Achievements so far include increased access to telephone contact in court custody
suites, allowances for the increased use of Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL), amending
the eligibility for Child Resettlement Leave to include primary carers as well as
sole carers, and the rollout of video calling across the Women’s Estate.</p><p> </p><p>As
set out in the Female Offender Strategy, the Government is working to ensure women’s
personal circumstances are identified and shared by all agencies in the criminal justice
system, in order to inform decisions and support. Lord Farmer’s recommendation on
the Personal Circumstances File forms part of this work.</p><p> </p><p>We are also
committed to increasing the delivery of quality and timely pre-sentence reports (PSRs)
and understand the particular importance of PSRs for women. HM Prison and Probation
Service has developed a Pre-Sentence Report interview checklist which focuses on the
specific needs of female offenders. Following a series of briefing events, this was
rolled out nationally in August 2019 and is available to all practitioners.</p><p>
</p><p>Additionally, in the Sentencing White Paper we committed to ensuring that probation
staff are supported to deliver a high standard of reports and to significantly increase
the proportion of court disposals which benefit from a PSR. This pilot has now launched,
and will be in all 15 pilot magistrate courts across 10 probation regions in England
and Wales by mid-May. One element of this pilot looks specifically at female offenders,
given this cohort often have particularly complex needs. We will use the findings
from this pilot to further inform how we take forward Lord Farmer’s recommendation.</p>
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