Women offenders: after the Corston Report - United Kingdom ...

22 Women offenders: after the Corston ReportOffice on the violence against women and girls strategy; and with the Department forCommunities and Local Government on its troubled families strategy and trying to stopintergenerational criminal behaviour. 9346. At Ministerial level, Helen Grant represents the Ministry of Justice on the interministerialgroups (IMG) on human trafficking and violence against women and girls;another Justice Minister sits on the IMG on homelessness. Helen Grant felt that her dualrole—as the Justice Minister with responsibility for women in the criminal justice systemand as one of the Ministers for women and equalities—was “very beneficial”. 94 Despite herdual role, however, she did not see responsibility for women at risk of offending as directlyfalling within her remit, but rather as being “on the fringe” of her role, for example,through women’s centres which provided opportunities to “catch and divert” such women,who she believed were the responsibility of “a number of other Governmentdepartments”. 9547. Our evidence suggests that the Ministry of Justice did not engage with otherstakeholders in drawing up its strategic priorities. 96 Clinks (the national umbrella bodysupporting VCS organisations working with offenders and their families) and theReducing Reoffending Third Sector Advisory Group (RR3) were asked by Crispin Blunt toreview the existing approach to women offenders but subsequently received no response totheir report. 97 Clive Martin told us that RR3, ostensibly a ministerial advisory group, wasused as a retrospective consultation mechanism, for example, on the TransformingRehabilitation proposals. 9848. Several of our witnesses called for clear measures of success and a monitoringframework to ensure that progress against priorities was sustained. 99 For example, LizRijnenberg called for cross-departmental targets for outcomes for women offenders todrive adherence to the Equality Act by ensuring that their needs are more prominent andthat tangible outcomes are driven forward. 100 There are currently no targets or obviousoutcomes related to each priority, although the Government states in the document that itsgoal is to see: “fewer women offending; fewer women serving short-custodial sentences;and fewer women re-offending.” The Criminal Justice Alliance feared that if commitmentssuch as reducing the use of custody and diverting women away from crime and thecriminal justice system were not explicitly articulated and pursued, little progress would bemade in generating better outcomes for women involved in offending. 101 Some witnesseswished to see a Government commitment to regular reporting against strategic objectivesas a mechanism to maintain momentum. 102 Baroness Corston told us she believed that93 Q 25994 Q 25995 Qq 260–26196 Qq 85–8697 Q 152 [Mr Martin]98 Q 15699 See for example Ev 63, Ev 103, Ev w70100 Q 207101 Ev w70102 See for example Ev 63, Ev 103, Ev w51, Ev 74