§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will arrange pilot schemes enabling women to defer the start of a prison sentence until the best possible arrangements have been made for the care of all dependent children, as occurs in the Netherlands. [HL1356]
§ Lord Williams of MostynSection 1 of the Powers of the Criminal Courts Act 1973 enables a court to defer passing sentence on an offender only to enable it to have regard to the offender's conduct after conviction or to any change in circumstances. There is no power to defer sentence to enable people to arrange childcare and such a change would require legislation.
Where a custodial sentence is likely to be imposed, national standards require the writers of pre-sentence reports to identify any expected adverse effects for offenders and their family, including the issue of childcare where appropriate.
On 3 December last year the Director General of the Prison Service announced a full review of the principles, policies and procedures for mothers and babies/children in prison. The review will consider the needs of mothers in prison from a much wider perspective than simply reviewing the provision of mother and baby units. Its report will shortly be submitted to the director general with recommendations for a future strategy. We will carefully consider this report and decide what additional measures are necessary in the light of its findings.