New Inquiry: Women Offenders

Five years after the publication of the Corston Report, which made a series of recommendations to drive improvement in the women's criminal justice agenda, the Justice Committee has decided to hold an inquiry to review progress and examine current strategy and practice with respect to women offenders and those at risk of offending.

Specifically, we will seek to explore:

• The nature and effectiveness of the Ministry of Justice’s strategy for women offenders and those at risk of offending
• The nature and effectiveness of Ministry of Justice governance structures for women’s offending 
• The extent to which work to address the multiple and complex needs of women offenders is integrated across Government
• The extent to which the gender equality duty has become a lever for mainstream service commissioners - outside of the criminal justice system - to provide services which tackle the underlying causes of female offending
• The suitability of the women’s custodial estate and prison regimes
• The volume, range, quality, and sustainability of community provision for female offenders, including approved premises
• The availability of appropriate provision for different groups of women offenders, including, under 18s, women with children, foreign nationals and black, asian and minority ethnic women, and those with mental health problems.

The deadline for submissions is Monday 10 September 2012.

Call for evidence

Written evidence should be in MS Word (no later than 2007) or rich text format (please do not send PDF’s) with as little use of colour or logos as possible, and sent by e-mail to justicecommemo@parliament.uk

The body of the e-mail must include a contact name, telephone number and postal address. The e-mail should also make clear who the submission is from. Deadline for submissions is Monday 10 September 2012.

• Guidance on submitting evidence

How to respond

Written evidence should be in Word (no later than 2007) or rich text format with as little use of colour or logos as possible, and sent by e-mail to justicecommemo@parliament.uk.

The body of the e-mail must include a contact name, telephone number and postal address. The e-mail should also make clear who the submission is from.