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1608783

registered interest
date	29/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many babies have been born on the prison estate in each of the last 10 years.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham West and Penge
tabling member printed	Ellie Reeves
uin	176809
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/04/2023 answer text <p>We began collecting information on the number of babies born to women in the prison estate in 2020-21. Information is not available for previous years.</p><p> </p><p>During the nine months to 31 March 2021, and the twelve months to 31 March 2022, fewer than five babies were born within the prison estate in England and Wales in each period. We have not provided the exact figure, as that could lead to the identification of individuals.</p><p> </p><p>Any information relating to the number of women who have experienced miscarriages would be held by the National Health Service, and not by the Ministry of Justice.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 176814 question first answered 17/04/2023 07:57:03 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4620 label Biography information for Ellie Reeves

1184424

registered interest
date	11/03/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women gave birth (a) inside each prison and (b) on the way from prison to hospital in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff Central
tabling member printed	Jo Stevens
uin	28076
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/03/2020 answer text <p>Every effort is made to transfer pregnant women to hospital to give birth. On the rare occasions that births take place in prisons, it is owing to the unpredictability of labour.</p><p> </p><p>The information requested is not currently collected centrally as a matter of routine. Information on births in prisons is recorded by the prison, and on births in transit from prison to hospital by either the prison or the NHS Trust, depending on the mode of transport used. It would not be possible to collect and collate this information without incurring disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>I am able to state, however, on the basis of specific data collection exercises we have conducted, that there were fewer than five births in prison in 2018. We are unable to publish a more specific number because this would risk identifying individuals and therefore confidentiality, which contravenes the Data Protection Act.</p><p> </p><p>We are conducting a review of our policy on Mother and Baby Units, which includes looking at how we can improve the data available in relation to pregnancy and births. This is a complex area and there are sensitive issues relating to use of confidential medical information. The review is due to be published in the summer.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 16/03/2020 17:02:41 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4425 label Biography information for Jo Stevens

1184428

registered interest
date	11/03/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of pregnant women placed in solitary confinement in each prison in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019; and what the average length of time was for each woman to be placed in solitary confinement.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff Central
tabling member printed	Jo Stevens
uin	28080
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/03/2020 answer text <p>HMPPS does not hold people in solitary confinement but there are occasions where, for their own safety or that of others and in line with PSO 1700, prisoners are segregated from the main population of the prison.</p><p> </p><p>Our policy is clear that pregnant women should only be held in segregation exceptionally. Healthcare visits and assessments by a doctor and healthcare staff take place regularly on segregation units to ensure that prisoners can be removed from segregation if there are any physical or mental health grounds to do so. An initial healthcare screen is completed by a doctor or registered nurse within two hours of a prisoner being placed in segregation.</p><p> </p><p>We do not hold central data on the number of pregnant women that have been placed in segregation units, although governors of individual prisons will be aware of numbers of pregnant women in segregation in their establishment.</p><p> </p><p>We are conducting a review of our policy on Mother and Baby Units, which includes looking at what information related to pregnancy and birth can be collected centrally and published. The review is due to be published in the Summer.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer question first answered 16/03/2020 15:30:13 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4425 label Biography information for Jo Stevens

1150906

registered interest
date	21/10/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women gave birth in prison in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Bradford East
tabling member printed	Imran Hussain
uin	2763
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/10/2019 answer text <p>We are currently carrying out a fundamental review of our Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) policy, as part of which, we are looking at improving the information and data available in relation to pregnancy and births. This is a complex area and there are sensitive issues relating to medical information and data protection which must be taken into account, but we are looking closely at this issue to drive improvements in our support for pregnant women across the estate.</p><p> </p><p>In the interim, we have worked to provide a total figure for the number of pregnant women across the Women’s Estate, based on a bespoke data collection exercise. We can inform you that the total number of women who declared they were pregnant was 47, as at 15:00hrs on Monday 28 October 2019. This represents less than 2 per cent of the population, which stood at 3,808 at the time of the exercise.</p><p> </p><p>We know that it is extremely rare for a woman to give birth in prison – because every step is taken to get them to hospital – but those unique cases are invariably down to the unpredictability of labour.</p><p> </p><p>The number of women who give birth in prison is not collected centrally and as there is no central data field to record this data, prisons would be required to conduct a manual search of their records for all women who have been taken into custody over a specific period. Although the prison population sits at around 3,800, this does not account for the high churn in prison numbers and therefore the number of records to be searched would be much higher. However, an internal data collection exercise conducted in 2018 indicated that prisons reported fewer than 5 births in prison in the past any one year.</p><p> </p><p>The remaining information you have requested is not currently held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>All pregnant women are seen by a professional midwife at least fortnightly or more frequently if required. Healthcare in prisons is provided by specially trained medics and nurses. Medical emergencies are dealt with by 999 calls and prisoners have access to an emergency bell to alert staff at night. Women in prison have access to the same range of services as they would in the community.</p><p> </p><p>Policy Guidance adjoining the Women’s Policy Framework 2018 contains comprehensive operational guidance on perinatal support to women in custody. To accompany the policy, a training course for managing pregnant women in custody and MBUs is available to prison staff supporting pregnant women, or women with children in MBUs.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer grouped question UIN 2764 2765 2766 2767 question first answered 31/10/2019 10:51:40 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4394 label Biography information for Imran Hussain

1150907

registered interest
date	21/10/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women prisoners were admitted to hospital (a) after giving birth and (b) before giving birth in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Bradford East
tabling member printed	Imran Hussain
uin	2764
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/10/2019 answer text <p>We are currently carrying out a fundamental review of our Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) policy, as part of which, we are looking at improving the information and data available in relation to pregnancy and births. This is a complex area and there are sensitive issues relating to medical information and data protection which must be taken into account, but we are looking closely at this issue to drive improvements in our support for pregnant women across the estate.</p><p> </p><p>In the interim, we have worked to provide a total figure for the number of pregnant women across the Women’s Estate, based on a bespoke data collection exercise. We can inform you that the total number of women who declared they were pregnant was 47, as at 15:00hrs on Monday 28 October 2019. This represents less than 2 per cent of the population, which stood at 3,808 at the time of the exercise.</p><p> </p><p>We know that it is extremely rare for a woman to give birth in prison – because every step is taken to get them to hospital – but those unique cases are invariably down to the unpredictability of labour.</p><p> </p><p>The number of women who give birth in prison is not collected centrally and as there is no central data field to record this data, prisons would be required to conduct a manual search of their records for all women who have been taken into custody over a specific period. Although the prison population sits at around 3,800, this does not account for the high churn in prison numbers and therefore the number of records to be searched would be much higher. However, an internal data collection exercise conducted in 2018 indicated that prisons reported fewer than 5 births in prison in the past any one year.</p><p> </p><p>The remaining information you have requested is not currently held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>All pregnant women are seen by a professional midwife at least fortnightly or more frequently if required. Healthcare in prisons is provided by specially trained medics and nurses. Medical emergencies are dealt with by 999 calls and prisoners have access to an emergency bell to alert staff at night. Women in prison have access to the same range of services as they would in the community.</p><p> </p><p>Policy Guidance adjoining the Women’s Policy Framework 2018 contains comprehensive operational guidance on perinatal support to women in custody. To accompany the policy, a training course for managing pregnant women in custody and MBUs is available to prison staff supporting pregnant women, or women with children in MBUs.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer grouped question UIN 2763 2765 2766 2767 question first answered 31/10/2019 10:51:40 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4394 label Biography information for Imran Hussain

1150908

registered interest
date	21/10/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children born in prison were admitted to hospital after birth in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Bradford East
tabling member printed	Imran Hussain
uin	2765
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/10/2019 answer text <p>We are currently carrying out a fundamental review of our Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) policy, as part of which, we are looking at improving the information and data available in relation to pregnancy and births. This is a complex area and there are sensitive issues relating to medical information and data protection which must be taken into account, but we are looking closely at this issue to drive improvements in our support for pregnant women across the estate.</p><p> </p><p>In the interim, we have worked to provide a total figure for the number of pregnant women across the Women’s Estate, based on a bespoke data collection exercise. We can inform you that the total number of women who declared they were pregnant was 47, as at 15:00hrs on Monday 28 October 2019. This represents less than 2 per cent of the population, which stood at 3,808 at the time of the exercise.</p><p> </p><p>We know that it is extremely rare for a woman to give birth in prison – because every step is taken to get them to hospital – but those unique cases are invariably down to the unpredictability of labour.</p><p> </p><p>The number of women who give birth in prison is not collected centrally and as there is no central data field to record this data, prisons would be required to conduct a manual search of their records for all women who have been taken into custody over a specific period. Although the prison population sits at around 3,800, this does not account for the high churn in prison numbers and therefore the number of records to be searched would be much higher. However, an internal data collection exercise conducted in 2018 indicated that prisons reported fewer than 5 births in prison in the past any one year.</p><p> </p><p>The remaining information you have requested is not currently held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>All pregnant women are seen by a professional midwife at least fortnightly or more frequently if required. Healthcare in prisons is provided by specially trained medics and nurses. Medical emergencies are dealt with by 999 calls and prisoners have access to an emergency bell to alert staff at night. Women in prison have access to the same range of services as they would in the community.</p><p> </p><p>Policy Guidance adjoining the Women’s Policy Framework 2018 contains comprehensive operational guidance on perinatal support to women in custody. To accompany the policy, a training course for managing pregnant women in custody and MBUs is available to prison staff supporting pregnant women, or women with children in MBUs.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer grouped question UIN 2763 2764 2766 2767 question first answered 31/10/2019 10:51:40 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4394 label Biography information for Imran Hussain

1149517

registered interest
date	15/10/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) babies born to women serving custodial sentences have lived and (b) neo-natal mortalities there have been among such women in each women's prison in England and Wales in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Camberwell and Peckham
tabling member printed	Ms Harriet Harman
uin	399
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/10/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. We are currently carrying out a fundamental review of our Mother and Baby Units policy, as part of which, we are looking at what information related to pregnancy and birth can be collected.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer grouped question UIN 397 398 question first answered 21/10/2019 16:40:00 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	150 label Biography information for Ms Harriet Harman

1148394

registered interest
date	04/10/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children were born in prisons in the last year.
tabling member constituency	Hornsey and Wood Green
tabling member printed	Catherine West
uin	294739
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/10/2019 answer text <p>Information relating to births and pregnancy is recorded locally, and is not collected centrally. Work is currently underway to look at what information related to pregnancy and birth can be collected centrally.</p><p> </p><p>Births in prison are extremely rare. Every effort is made to ensure women are in the appropriate hospital setting in order to give birth, however this is not always possible due to the unpredictability of labour.</p><p> </p><p>All pregnant women in custody have an individual care and management plan that is communicated to all staff and all pregnant women are seen by a mid-wife at least fortnightly or as required. Women can expect to have access to the same range of services as they would in the community. Healthcare in prisons is provided by trained medics and nurses, but we have also made training on dealing with pregnant women available to all prison officers.</p><p> </p><p>A Prison Service Instruction sets out the current policy on Mother and Baby Units (MBUs), and the Policy Guidance adjoining the Women’s Policy Framework 2018 contains comprehensive operational guidance on perinatal support to women in custody. A review of the MBU policy is currently underway.</p> answering member constituency South East Cambridgeshire answering member printed Lucy Frazer grouped question UIN 294740 question first answered 08/10/2019 15:40:02 answering member 4517 label Biography information for Lucy Frazer
tabling member	4523 label Biography information for Catherine West

1140282

registered interest
date	18/07/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women in prison gave birth in 2018.
tabling member constituency	Leeds East
tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
uin	279094
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/07/2019 answer text <p>The information is not centrally held and could only be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, all pregnant women in custody have an individual care and management plan that is communicated to all staff and all pregnant women are seen by a mid-wife at least fortnightly or as required.</p><p> </p><p>Healthcare in prisons is provided by trained medics and nurses, but we have also made training on dealing with pregnant women available to all prison officers.</p><p> </p><p>We know it is extremely rare for a woman to give birth in prison - because every step is taken to get them to hospital - but those unique cases are invariably down to the unpredictability of labour.</p><p> </p><p>Our Female Offender Strategy made clear that we want fewer women serving short sentences in custody and more remaining in the community, making use of women’s centres to address needs such as substance misuse and mental health problems.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 23/07/2019 16:09:08 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1130048

registered interest
date	05/06/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners: Childbirth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many babies were born to mothers in prison in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Stretford and Urmston
tabling member printed	Kate Green
uin	260623
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/06/2019 answer text <p>The information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Information relating to births and pregnancy is recorded locally. Work is currently underway to look at what information related to pregnancy and birth can be collected centrally.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 14/06/2019 08:19:22 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4120 label Biography information for Kate Green