A woman convicted of murder, sentenced to a mandatory life sentence and released in 2015 has won her bid to be settled near her family in London.
R (on the application of Coll) v Secretary of State for Justice [2017] UKSC 40 concerned a woman who was sent to Bedford on release. She had lived most of her adult life in London, where her children and grandchildren lived.
It can be a condition of release from prison of certain medium and high risk prisoners that they live at ‘approved premises’ (APs), formerly known as probation hostels or bail hostels.
These are single sex establishments, and there are 94 for men but only six for women, who make up 5% of the population. None of the women’s APs are in London or Wales.
The woman claimed that the arrangement for placing prisoners in APs gave rise to unlawful sex discrimination contrary to the Equality Act 2010, and Arts 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and that the secretary of state had acted in breach of the public sector equality duty. Her claim was rejected by the High Court and Court of Appeal.
However, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the woman’s appeal.
Giving the lead judgment, Lady Hale said the case of direct discrimination was ‘a simple one’ and that being ‘required to live in an AP a long way away from home is a detriment. A woman is much more likely to suffer this detriment than is a man, because of the geographical distribution of the small number of APs available for women’.
She said the crucial question was whether the limited provision was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
