Deputy Leader of the Green Party Amelia Womack has called for sanitary products to be made available free to any vulnerable person who needs them.
Womack’s intervention comes after the Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) found that police were, in the ICVA’s words, “routinely ignoring” the needs of women detainees who are on their periods [1]. She added that the government should work with ethical companies to ensure green sanitary products can be made available.
Womack said:
“I cannot begin to imagine the trauma these women are going through - put away in prison and denied their basic rights to sanitation. And while the ICVA’s report is welcome and revelatory, we have to be honest that this is a problem not only found in Britain’s police custody units. Women struggling on a low income also regularly have to find free alternatives - from paper towels to newspapers - to sanitary products. It cannot go on. That’s why the Green Party is calling for a national fund to be created that gives vulnerable women - those who are homeless, on a low income, or in prison - free access to sanitary products. It’s what a decent society would do.”
Notes