Children of mothers in prison and the right to family life: The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill Contents

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Conclusions and recommendations

1.The Government still does not know how many mothers of dependent children are in prison. It also does not know how many children are separated from their mother by her imprisonment. Despite this Committee’s repeated recommendations that it should collect this data, the Government’s insouciant approach continues to keep a group of children invisible to policy makers, the courts, the Prison Service and other support services. A lack of data inhibits the ability of the Government, prisons and local authorities to design and evaluate services for children whose mothers are in prison. It prevents children whose primary carer has been separated from them, through no fault of their own, from accessing the support that will help them during and after their mothers’ sentence, and ultimately shows a blatant disregard for the rights of the child, as well as their parents’ right to family life. (Paragraph 10)

2.We therefore propose inserting an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. This amendment imposes a requirement on the Secretary of State to collect and publish data on the number of prisoners who are the primary carers of a child and the number of children who have a primary carer in custody. This amendment is set out as amendment 5 in the annex to this Report. (Paragraph 11)

3.The Government should adopt our new clauses to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to ensure data about primary carers in prison, and their dependents, is adequately captured and reported. (Paragraph 12)

4.We are not clear why an increase in police numbers will automatically increase the female prison population, and as such recommend that the Government writes to us, setting out its modelling and assumptions on which it has based its decision to expand the capacity of the prison estate due to the increase in police officers. (Paragraph 13)

5.Whilst there have been some minor changes to guidance to try to give greater visibility to the obligation on the court to consider the best interests of children when a primary carer is sentenced to custody, there are strong risks that this will continue to be too little to be effective for those children whose lives are torn apart in these processes. However, we disagreed in 2019 when the Government did not think it necessary to put the consideration of the welfare of children whose parents are sentenced to prison on a statutory footing, and two years later, we continue to disagree. We cannot see how the welfare and best interests of children are being sufficiently considered if their welfare and best interests are not prioritised as a consideration when a parent is sentenced. We hope that the Government takes the opportunity of the Bill to reconsider its position. (Paragraph 20)

6.We propose amendments 1–4 set out in the annex of this Report. These amendments:

a)amend section 30 of the Sentencing Act 2020 to make clear the requirement for a sentencing judge to have a copy of a pre-sentence report, considering the impact of a custodial sentence on the dependent child, when sentencing a primary carer of a child (Amendment 1);

b)amend section 52 Sentencing Act 2020 to require a sentencing judge to state how the best interests of a child were considered when sentencing a primary carer of a dependent child (Amendment 2);

c)reflect the requirement for a sentencing judge, when sentencing a primary carer of a dependent child, to consider the impact of a custodial sentence on a child (Amendment 3); and

d)reflect the requirement for a judge to consider the impact of not granting bail on a child when determining, in criminal proceedings, whether to grant bail to a primary carer of a dependent child (Amendment 4). (Paragraph 21)

7.These new clauses merely reflect what ought to, but sadly often does not, happen to consider and respect the rights of the child when a primary carer is sentenced. We hope that their inclusion in statute will help to ensure that the rights of these children are not ignored in the future. (Paragraph 22)

8.The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill is an opportunity to ensure that the best interests of children are upheld when sentencing a primary carer. We recommend that the Government adopts our amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to ensure that the best interests and welfare of children are suitably prioritised, and their rights protected when a primary carer is sentenced to prison. (Paragraph 23)