The Ministry recognises it needs to work together with many other national and local bodies to improve outcomes for women in the CJS.26 It established a concordat with other government departments, creating a basis for joint working, although this was only published in January 2021—two years later than planned.27 The Howard League for Penal Reform told us the that as well as the Female Offender Strategy, there are numerous strategies across government to tackle drug abuse, mental illness, violence against women and girls and that the challenge is to bring them together: “we know that drugs affect a lot of women. We know about mental ill health and violence.... We know that a large number of women who are in the Female Offender Strategy are equally captured as victims under the violence against women and girls strategy. They are the same women. We need to better understand how these strategies fit together”28