Biennial statistics on the representation of sex groups as victims, suspects, defendants, offenders and employees in the Criminal Justice System.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Latest prison population figures for 2023.

Earlier editions: Women in the criminal justice system 2009-10

Biennial statistics on the representation of females and males as victims, suspects, offenders and employees in the Criminal Justice System.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Introduction

This report provides information about how females and males were represented in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in the most recent year for which data were available, and, wherever possible, across the last five years. Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 requires the Government to publish statistical data to assess whether any discrimination exists in how the CJS treats people based on their gender.

These statistics are used by policy makers, the agencies who comprise the CJS and others (e.g. academics) to monitor differences between females and males, and to
highlight areas where practitioners and others may wish to undertake more in-depth analysis. The identification of differences should not be equated with discrimination as there are many reasons why apparent disparities may exist.

Specific findings

Women as victims of crime

The most recent data show differences in the level and types of victimisation between females and males. Key findings:

• The 2011/12 CSEW estimated three in every 100 adults were a victim of violent crime. As in previous years, a smaller proportion of women than men interviewed reported being victims of violence (2% versus 4% in the 2011/12 CSEW).
• The 2011/12 CSEW self-completion module on intimate violence showed that a greater proportion of women (7%) reported being victims of intimate violence than men (5%).
• Findings from the child component of the 2011/12 CSEW showed that, in the 12 months prior to interview, a smaller proportion of girls (aged 10 to 15) reported being victims of violence than boys (5% per cent versus 11%).
• Data from the Homicide Index showed that fewer females (201) than males (435) were victims of homicide in 2010/11. As in the previous four years, a greater proportion of female than male victims knew the principal suspect (78% and 57% respectively in 2010/11).

Women as suspects

Fewer than one in five arrests recorded by the police in 2010/11 and in the preceding four years involved females. Key findings:

• Between 2006/07 and 2010/11, there was an 8% reduction in the number of arrests by police forces in England and Wales (from 1,482,156 to 1,360,451). There was a 13% decrease for females and a 7% decrease for males.

Women as defendants

Data on out of court disposals and court proceedings showed some differences in the types of disposals issued to males and females, and also in sentence lengths.

These may relate to a range of factors including variations in the types of offences committed.

Key findings:

• In 2011, females accounted for 24% of the 127,530 PNDs and 24% of the 231,483 cautions administered to individuals of known gender. Retail theft (under £200) was the most common offence type for which females were issued a PND (54% of PNDs issued to females), and drunk and disorderly for males (31% of PNDs issued to males).
• Overall, 1,246,320 persons of known gender were convicted and sentenced at all courts in 2011; again 24% were female and 76% were male.
• Theft and handling stolen goods (which includes shoplifting) was the most common indictable offence group for which both females and males were sentenced at all courts between 2007 and 2011 (52% of females and 33% of males sentenced for indictable offences in 2011).
• Overall, a higher proportion of all males than all females were sentenced to immediate custody in 2011 (10% versus 3%), and females more commonly received a fine (77% versus 61% of males). These patterns were also consistent in the four preceding years.
• The average custodial sentence length (ACSL) for all indictable offences was consistently higher for males than for females between 2007 and 2011 (in 2011, 17.7 months for males compared to 11.6 months for females).

Women as offenders: under supervision or in custody

Across the five year period, there were substantially fewer women than men both under supervision and in prison custody. A greater proportion of women were also serving shorter sentences than men, which is again likely to be attributable to a range of factors including differences in the offence types committed by men and women. Key findings:

• In 20

This report from the Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) programme is an official statistics in development publication from the Ministry of Justice.

The analysis links data from HM Prison and Probation (HMPPS) data sources, as well as Child Benefit data from HM Revenue and Customs, to derive an estimate of the number of children with a parent in prison. This is the first time HMPPS data covering the entire prison population for England and Wales has been linked together to produce aggregate numbers of prisoners with children on a national scale and a corresponding estimate for the number of children with a parent in prison.

The report and accompanying Technical Guide details the methodology to derive this estimate, as well as findings on:

• Count of prisoners identified as parents

• Differences in prisoners counted as parents by data source

• The population of prisoner parents by sentence length and sex

Children with a parent in prison are considered to be a hidden population, with data on these children held in multiple places across a number of government services. This report takes steps to bring this data together and to identify the scale of parental imprisonment, building collective understanding of the estimated number of children with a parent in prison.

As this is an official statistics in development publication, we are consulting on the methodology; further details on this can be found in the Technical Guide.

The following post holders are given pre-release access before the release of the Estimates of children with a parent in prison report. Analysts and policy professionals involved in the production and quality assurance of the report are excluded from this list.

Ministry of Justice:

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State, Minister for Prisons, Private Secretaries (x2); Special Advisor; Director General Policy - Prisons, Offenders and International Justice; Director General - Service Transformation Group; Director - Prison Policy; Deputy Director - Prisoner Outcomes, Resettlement & Reoffending; Deputy Director - Female Offenders and Health Policy; BOLD Programme Director; Chief Data Officer; Data Director; policy officials (x6); press officers (x3)

HM Prison and Probation Service:

Deputy Director - Rehabilitation Strategy and Interventions; Executive Director - Rehabilitation; Public Protection Group Director; policy officials (x3)

Department for Education:

Minister for Children and Families, Private Secretary, Director of Children’s Social Care, Safeguarding and Workforce, policy officials (x6), press officers (x2)

Background:

The Lord Chancellor announced an independent Sentencing Review on 22nd October 2024. This note explains the data used to determine the statement that 500 places had been added to prison capacity between 2010 and 2024.

Data:

This data covers the entire prison estate (adult male, adult female, and youth) in England and Wales. All data is sourced from internal HMPPS management information.

Headline figures:

1) 500 places added to prison capacity in 14 years
The 500 places net change in prison capacity in 14 years was calculated as the difference between total operational capacity in May 2010 (89,757) and April 2024 (90,239). This results in a net increase of 482 places which was rounded up to 500 for the Lord Chancellor’s statement to parliament.

2) 13,000 places built and 12,500 places closed between 2010 and 2024
Data for 13,000 places built references unpublished data used in the House of Commons by Edward Argar MP on 18th July 2024. It refers to 13,009 places built between May 2010 and August 2023. Places built includes ‘re-roles’ where other secure space, such as Immigration Removal Centres, has been repurposed to prison places.
Data for the 12,500 places closed refers to an unpublished estimate of 12,514 prison places closed over the same time period. In this instance, ‘places closed’ includes ‘re-roles’ where prison spaces been taken out of use to be reconfigured in a different part of the estate. It includes places that were planned to close permanently due to dilapidation, but which subsequently were re-opened after investment to improve their condition.

Limitations:

The places built and closed data above should not be combined to produce an estimate of prison capacity created. This is because prison places that were expected to close due to dilapidations feature as closures in the places closed data, but not as places subsequently reopened in the places built data. This means net capacity change would be an underestimate if calculated in this way. Operational capacity reflects temporary weekly adjustments in available prison spaces, such as reductions for maintenance or changes to crowding levels. In contrast, places opened and closed indicate permanent capacity changes, like new facilities being built or prisons permanently closing. As operational capacity varies week to week, it often includes more variance due to these frequent, short-term changes.
Prison capacity fluctuates from one week to another, for example as prison places are taken out of use to do essential maintenance work and others are returned to use. The net change in prison places from one year to another therefore depends on the chosen dates within each year.

The report is released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

For further information about the Justice Data Lab, please refer to the following guidance:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab" class="govuk-link">http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab

Key findings this quarter

Two requests are being published this quarter: The Thinking Skills Programme (2010-2019), and Lancashire Women – second request (2015-2021).

The Thinking Skills Programme (2010 – 2019)

There are two Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) reports which evaluate (a) the impact on reoffending behaviour, and (b) the impact on prison misconduct, for individuals who participated in the TSP. The TSP is an accredited offending behaviour programme designed and delivered by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

Impact evaluation of prison-based TSP on reoffending

The reoffending study involved a treatment group of 20,293 adults (18,555 males, 1,738 females) who participated in the TSP in custody between 2010 and 2019. Proven reoffending was measured over a two-year period from the point of release from custody.

Over a two-year period from release, men who participated in the TSP were less likely to reoffend, reoffended less frequently, and took longer to reoffend, compared to similar males who did not participate in the TSP. These results were statistically significant and the effect sizes were very small.

Results indicated that over a two-year period following release, females who participated in the TSP reoffended less frequently, compared to similar females who did not participate in the TSP. These results were statistically significant with very small effect sizes.

Impact evaluation of the TSP on prison misconduct

The prison misconduct study involved a treatment group of 13,891 adults (12,938 males, and 953 females) who participated in the TSP between 2011 and 2019.

The male headline analysis results showed that over a 6-month period after starting the TSP those who had participated were less likely to receive an adjudication compared to males who did not participate in the TSP and received an adjudication less frequently. These results had very small effect sizes and were statistically significant.

The female headline analyses showed that over a 6-month period after starting the TSP females who had participated in the TSP received any form of adjudication less frequently compared to those who did not participate in the TSP. This result had a very small effect size and was statistically significant.

Lancashire Women – Second request (2015-2021)

Lancashire Women support women involved, or at risk of involvement, in the criminal justice system. The gender specific organisation offers support around societal stigmas, housing, emotional wellbeing, education, employment, and family and relationships. This is the second JDL evaluation for Lancashire Women, looking at programme participants between 2015 and 2021.

The overall results show that those who took part in the Lancashire Women were less likely to reoffend, reoffended less frequently and took longer to reoffend than those who did not take part. These results were statistically significant.

Justice Data Lab service: available reoffending data

The Justice Data Lab team have brought in reoffending data for the second quarter of 2021 into the service. It is now possible for an organisation to submit information on the individuals it was working with up to the end of June 2021, in addition to during the years 2002 to 2020.

Pre-release access

The bulletins are produced and handled by the Ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons: Minister of State, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Special Advisers, Permanent Secretary, Deputy Head of News, 1 Director General, 6 press officers, 18 policy officials, and 5 analytical officials. Relevant Special Advisers and Private Office staff of Ministers and senior officials may have access to pre-release figures to inform briefing and handling arrangements.

Safety in custody statistics cover deaths, self-harm and assaults in prison custody in England and Wales. This publication updates statistics on deaths to the end of September 2024 and assaults and self-harm up to June 2024.

The annual publication for assaults and self-harm in custody are published in the Safety in Custody up to December publication, published in April. Annual tables provide further breakdowns and at a more granular level. Quarterly provisional updates are then published every July, October and January. Deaths data are published three months ahead of self-harm and assaults, therefore, the annual deaths tables are published in the Safety in Custody up to September publication, published every January. Quarterly provisional updates to deaths in custody are published every April, July and October.

The bulletin is released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

This page covers weekly estate summary data. View monthly prison breakdown.

This publication provides key statistics relating to offenders who are in prison or under Probation Service supervision. It covers flows into these services (receptions into prison or probation starts) and flows out (discharges from prison or probation terminations) as well as the caseload of both services at specific points in time. Latest figures for the quarter January to March 2013 are provided compared to the same period in 2012 for each topic as well as reference to longer term trends, with the exception of the prison population where more recent data is available (30 June 2013).

The contents of the report will be of interest to the public, government policy makers, the agencies responsible for offender management at both national and local levels, and others who want to understand more about the prison population, probation caseload, licence recalls and returns to custody.

Prison population

The prison population grew rapidly between 1993 to 2008 – an average of 4 per cent a year. This rapid rise was driven by:

• Increased numbers of people sentenced to immediate custody from 1993 to 2002.
• Increases in the average custodial sentence length and increased use of indeterminate sentences.
• Increase in numbers recalled to prison following breaches of the conditions of licence and these offenders spending longer in prison once recalled.

The rise in the prison population slowed considerably from the summer of 2008 with an average annual increase of 1 per cent (Figure 1.1), until the public disorder seen in UK cities from 6 to 9 August 2011 which had an immediate impact on the prison population.

The flatter trend prior to the disorder partly reflected the introduction of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (CJIA) 2008, which changed sentencing and offender management in ways which helped to reduce growth in the prison population. For more information, see http://www.justice.gov.uk/youth-justice/courts-and-orders/criminal-justice-and-immigration-act/criminal-justice-and-immigration-act-custodial-sentence-provisions">CJIA 2008.

Other factors, over and above the direct impact of the 2011 public disorder, contributed to an increased prison population for a temporary period which now appears to be over. The falling remand population, and continued decline in the number of under-18s in custody during 2012 and into 2013, mean that the prison population is now tracking between the low and medium projections.

The Story of the Prison Population 1993 to 2012 provides an in-depth examination of what happened to the prison population between 1993 and 2012 and the major factors contributing to the changes in the prison population.

The prison population at 30 June 2013 was 83,842, a decrease of 2,206 (3 per cent) compared to 30 June 2012 when the total population was 86,048.

At 30 June 2013, there were:

• 79,989 males in prison - a fall of 2 per cent over the year
• 3,853 females in prison - a fall of 7 per cent over the year

The overall decrease in the total prison population over the last year (30 June 2012 to 30 June 2013) comprised decreases in both the remand and the sentenced segments of the prison population.

The remand population fell by 3 per cent, driven entirely by the fall in the convicted unsentenced population (down 12 per cent), while the untried population rose 1 per cent. However this 1 per cent rise in the untried population was due to a ‘day of the week effect’ – 30 June 2013 was a Sunday, and the remand population on a Sunday is typically higher than on any other day of the week as prisoners continue to enter prison on remand, but no other court hearings take place. If 30 June 2013 had fallen on any other day of the week, it is likely the year on year change would instead have been around a 1 per cent fall. A 1 per cent fall would still be a change from recent trends. In recent quarters we have seen much larger falls in the untried population partly reflecting falling volumes going through the courts, and partly reflecting the introduction, in December 2012, of measures restricting the use of remand for offenders who would be unlikely to receive a custodial sentence . It is likely that the full impact of these remand measures has now been realised, contributing to the much flatter trend in the latest quarter.

The sentenced population fell by 2,329, or 3 per cent, over the last year. All age groups saw a fall with adults (age 21+) down 1,082 or 2 per cent; young adults (18-20) down 934 or 16 per cent; and 15-17 year olds down almost a third, falling by 313, to 682. Similar patterns were seen in both the male and female populations.

These trends are con

The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys (APMS) (formerly known as the Surveys of Psychiatric Morbidity) are a series of surveys which provide data on the prevalence of both treated and untreated psychiatric disorders in the adult population (aged 16 and over).

The first survey was conducted in 1993, covering 16 to 64-year-olds. A further survey was conducted in 2000 (covering 16 to 74-year-olds) and included respondents living in England, Scotland and Wales. From 2007 onwards, the surveys have been commissioned by NHS Digital on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), including people aged over 16 (no upper age limit) living in England. For 2007 and 2014, the surveys were conducted by NatCen Social Research on behalf of NHS Digital. The surveys capture information on common mental disorders, mental health treatment and service use, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychotic disorder, autism, personality disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, alcohol, drugs, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, self-harm, and comorbidity.

A similar series covering young people aged 5 to 15/16, the Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys (MHCYP), is also commissioned by NHS Digital.

The report is released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

For further information about the Justice Data Lab, please refer to the guidance.

Key findings this quarter

Three requests are being published this quarter: Clean Break, City and Guilds and Forward Trust.

Clean Break

Clean Break provides a theatre-based education and training programme to female offenders over the duration of two to three years. The intervention delivers a range of 27 courses to female offenders, that help participants to develop personal, social, professional, and creative skills.

The overall results show that more people would need to have completed the programme and be available for analysis in order to determine the way in which the programme affects a person’s reoffending behaviour, but this should not be taken to mean that the programme fails to affect it.

City and Guilds

City and Guilds provides courses to offenders in over 120 prisons across England and Wales, aiming to provide them with the knowledge and skills they need to secure employment and realise their potential. In this analysis we looked at the impact of six different subject areas.

The results show that those who registered for a course in Construction, Hospitality or Maths & English were less likely to reoffend, and committed fewer reoffences, than those who did not register for any course. More people would need to become available for analysis in order to determine the way in which a course in Hair & Beauty, Business or Employability affects a person’s reoffending behaviour, but this should not be taken to mean that these courses fail to affect it.

Forward Trust

The Forward Trust Alcohol Dependence Treatment Programme (ADPT) is an intensive 6-week programme, which aims to reduce reoffending and improve outcomes for participants. This analysis includes participants from programmes between March 2007 and October 2015 in Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Bullingdon, HMP Humber and HMP Highpoint.

Results show that these analyses would need more participants to determine the way in which the programme affects a person’s reoffending behaviour, but this should not be taken to mean that the programme fails to affect it.

Justice Data Lab service: available reoffending data

The Justice Data Lab team have brought in reoffending data for the fourth quarter of 2016 into the service. It is now possible for an organisation to submit information on the individuals it was working with up to the end of December 2016, in addition to during the years 2002 to 2015.

The bulletin is produced and handled by the Ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons: Ministry of Justice Secretary of State, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State - Minister for Prisons and Probation, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State - Minister for Offender Health and female offenders, Permanent Secretary, Director General of Offender Reform and Commissioning Group, Director of Analytical Services, Acting Head of News, Chief Press Officer, 11 Policy and Analytical Advisers for reducing reoffending and rehabilitation policy, special advisors, 7 press officers, and 10 private secretaries.