The decision to sentence a person to a custodial sentence, or to remand a person into custody prior to trial or sentencing, is a matter for the independent judiciary and courts will take into account all the circumstances of the offence and the offender in determining this.<\/p>
<\/p>
For the last two years, the female prison population has been consistently under 4,000 for the first time in a decade. Data on the number of women in prison is published annually at:<\/p>
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/339036/prison-population-2014.xls<\/p>
<\/p>
The numbers of women in prisons in England on 30th<\/sup> June on each of the years in question were:<\/p> <\/p> 2006<\/p><\/td> 2007<\/p><\/td> 2008<\/p><\/td> 2009<\/p><\/td> 2010<\/p><\/td> 2011<\/p><\/td> 2012<\/p><\/td> 2013<\/p><\/td> 2014<\/p><\/td><\/tr> 4,463<\/p><\/td> 4,283<\/p><\/td> 4,505<\/p><\/td> 4,307<\/p><\/td> 4,267<\/p><\/td> 4,185<\/p><\/td> 4,123<\/p><\/td> 3,853<\/p><\/td> 3,929<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table> <\/p> <\/p> We are committed to making sure that sentencers have robust community options at their disposal. The Female Offenders Advisory Board are working in Greater Manchester on a pathfinder aimed at providing sentencers with robust and effective sentencing options in the community which may divert women from custody, where appropriate. Learning from the pathfinder will inform a new operating model for working differently with women in the criminal justice system. We are also testing a new model of liaison and diversion in police custody and the courts. The trial scheme, in 10 areas, will aim to identify, assess and refer people with mental health, learning disability, substance misuse and social vulnerabilities into treatment or support services.<\/p> <\/p> We are also working to make sure that female offenders have the support they need to turn their lives around. In March 2014, we published a first year progress report on delivery of our strategic objectives for female offenders, which sets out clearly our key priorities for addressing the needs of female offenders and reducing the number of women in custody. Our Transforming Rehabilitation reforms also mean that those serving under 12 month sentences will, for the first time in recent history, be subject to statutory supervision including a licence period in the community, aimed at supporting successful community reintegration and rehabilitation. Proportionally, more women than men are serving short sentences so they will benefit particularly from this element of the reforms.<\/p>"}
, "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4183", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Lord Faulks"}
}
, "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Lord Faulks"}
, "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2014-11-17", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2014-11-17T14:18:29.543Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
]}
, "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "54"}
, "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"}
, "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"}
, "date" : {"_value" : "2014-10-29", "_datatype" : "dateTime"}
, "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Prisoners: Females"}
, "houseId" : {"_value" : "2"}
, "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25277", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Lords"}
}
], "questionText" : "To ask Her Majesty\u2019s Government how many women were in prisons in England on 30 June in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 respectively.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"}
, "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/215", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Baroness Corston"}
}
, "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Baroness Corston"}
], "uin" : "HL2501"}
], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]}
}