Women in police custody will now be offered free sanitary products if they're on their period
The government has announced changes in the law to ensure that women who are brought into police custody, and are on their period, will be treated with dignity.
The Home Office said any woman who is menstruating, or has any other personal health or hygiene needs, will be offered sanitary products free of charge. The new ruling requires police forces to ask female detainees if they'll be in need of sanitary towels or tampons at the earliest opportunity.
The announcement follows reports and research last year which found instances of female detainees being denied tampons - unable to speak to a female custody officer due to it often being a male-dominated environment - and without access to toilets and sinks to wash their hands.
"She was left bleeding in a paper suit, alone in a cell"
Last year, the Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) - groups of local volunteers who check on the wellbeing of people in police custody - told of one female detainee who came on her period while in custody. She had been put in an anti-rip clothing suit (as a self-harm and suicide prevention method), without underwear, and was therefore unable to wear a sanitary towel yet was denied a tampon.
The ICVA argued in a judicial review that instead she could have been given a tampon and put under increased observation (due to the risk of self-harm).
"Instead, she was left in a state of vulnerability sufficient to cause concern for her well-being, bleeding in a paper suit, alone in a cell," they wrote.
The ICVA found that this was an extreme and rare situation but, after researching the issue more widely across the UK, "frequently found poor menstrual care" in police custody, Katie Kempen, the chief executive of ICVA, told Cosmopolitan UK.
"[Volunteers] shared some shocking stories of detainees making do without menstrual products and detainees that did not want to use the toilets because they would be worried they would be watched... When menstrual products were available they were often inadequate."
As a result, the ICVA wrote to the Home Secretary asking for new measures to be introduced as they were "concerned by evidence emerging from the work of visitors that the needs of menstruating women in police custody are routinely ignored".
Under the legal changes, police forces will also have to ensure that should any woman in custody wish to speak to a member of staff of the same sex about personal health, hygiene or welfare issues, they must be able to.
Nick Hurd, the minister for policing, said he is clear that "everyone who enters custody should be treated with dignity and have their personal needs met".
Kempen said in a statement that the ICVA welcome the changes to legislation.
"The announcement today will mean that police in every custody suite will have a duty to offer detainees the chance to speak to someone of the same sex about their care needs," she said. "They will proactively offer menstrual products and detainees will be assured that they can use a toilet in privacy. This is a real change in the care of detainees and helps to ensure that everyone in custody has their basic needs met and are treated with dignity.
"No detainee should be left to bleed for want of a difficult conversation or a cheap tampon. These changes should ensure that never happens."
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