What measures it will take to reduce the number of women sent to prison and what resources it will allocate to support women in the communi…

The Scottish Executive is funding a range of measures to provide the courts with alternatives to custody for women offenders. Recognising that significant numbers of women are sentenced to custody for fine default, the pilots for the mandatory use of Supervised Attendance Orders (SAOs) withdraw the option of custody from sentencers in the pilot courts for those individuals, who have defaulted on fines up to £500. We will also shortly be funding pilots which use SAOs as a first instance disposal to provide courts with an additional sentencing option forthose who do not have the means to pay a fine.
More generally, the significantly increased funding invested in community disposals over recent years is providing the courts with a broader range of alternatives for female, as well as for male, offenders and a number of these have programmes geared specifically to the needs of women.
In addition, the 218 Time Out centre in Glasgow is a unique facility, funded by the Executive, to provide an alternative to custody and to support women offenders in the community, with detox and residential services in addition to day programmes. It can also be used with those who might otherwise have been remanded to custody.