Early Release Prisoners: Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping

Baroness Hyde of Bemerton Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hyde of Bemerton (Lab)]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for tabling this debate and for his compassionate and evidence-based work over many years in this space to make our country safer and to improve the lives of all those impacted by the criminal justice system. The topic of this debate is a subject close to my heart as well, having spent part of my career working with people immediately prior to, on the day of, and following, release—known in the sector as “through the gate” work. I will focus most of my remarks today on women, because that is the bulk of where my professional experience lies.

As alluded to by the right reverend Prelate, the transition from prison to community is a tough one. Some of the people I have worked with have told me it was a tougher transition than going from the community to prison. It is made harder by a lack of supportive relationships with people not involved in crime, by complicated applications for benefits, by trying to ensure that you have the correct medication, by perhaps trying to ensure that you have the correct support for abstinence programmes—and then you might be met at the gates by your pimp or dealer. There is also the enormous social stigma that can last many years after your conviction and licence have ended. In the middle of all this is the question of where the person might sleep that night and on subsequent nights, which is crucial to determining future positive outcomes.

Noble Lords are well aware that the country is in a housing crisis and a prison population and capacity crisis. I am proud to sit on these Labour Benches and I support all that we are doing to address this, not least in the Social Housing Bill, which we will debate on Report on Monday.

Neither the prison crisis nor the housing crisis can be solved overnight. But, alongside the immediate actions that this Government have taken, I urge noble Lords to continue to use the privilege of being long-term incumbents to ensure that strategic and longer-term plans are laid, so that we are able to both prevent and solve women’s homelessness and criminal justice involvement.

I want to tell you about Hayley, who I worked with—unsurprisingly, that is not her real name. I met her a few days before her release from a prison located far from anywhere, as they often are, it seems to me. On the day of her release, we went on several bus journeys to save money, rather than using other forms of transport, to take her to probation, the drug and alcohol services and the homeless persons unit. There, we sat through a perfunctory questionnaire while it was rattled off—“Do you have pets? What is your local connection? Are you the victim of domestic abuse? Are you the victim of sexual assault? Have you ever worked in prostitution?”—as though these were perfectly normal questions to ask in a public council office.

We spent several hours there and through advocacy we were able to secure her somewhere to sleep that night. But the part of the borough where she had been engaged in prostitution was also the part of the borough where cheap B&B temporary accommodation was available, and that was what the local authority could afford. Therefore, after a very long day—we were on hour 10 or 11 by this point—we went with the keys to an address in the very streets where she had previously been living and working, using drugs and being involved in prostitution. I took her to this sparsely furnished room via Tesco to get a few bits and left her for the night in this very basic room with nothing more than a magazine and a box of cereal to distract her. I was not optimistic about how this was going to go, and it felt deeply unsatisfactory to leave her there. A decade later, as I recount this to noble Lords, I am still deeply unsatisfied by our failure to meet that woman’s needs and to keep her safe, even though it might have been regarded as a success because she had a roof over her head for the night.

I am sure that well-informed noble Lords across your Lordships’ House are keen to take a strategic view and, just as Marmot introduced the idea of the social determinants of health, noble Lords here can work on the social determinants of crime. In Hayley’s case it was childhood trauma contributed to by parental addiction, resulting in her own addiction, being groomed into prostitution as a teenager and living on the streets when she was not living in a prison.

There are many charities and local authorities doing good work in this space, and I urge the Minister to keep digging into that evidence and drawing on the resource available from local authorities. My former workplace, Islington Council, does amazing work finding solutions in this space. It has a Housing First officer employed by the council to meet prison leavers at the prison gate. They are co-located in the probation office to co-design their service. They have quarterly meetings with probation and, at the last rough sleeping count, nobody found rough sleeping in Islington had left prison.

I wonder whether the Minister has come across the Californian outfit Impact Justice, which, through its Homecoming project, has helped house 600,000 people leaving prison for six months using an Airbnb-style platform where hosts offer their spare room to the person being released. A scheme like that would ensure that another Hayley will not be left in a box room with a magazine and a box of cereal for company, with the whole system just crossing its fingers that it will work. We have to get this right. I urge the Minister to continue pursuing best practice, from local authorities and internationally, to meet this need.

Imprisonment for Public Protection Prisoners

Baroness Hyde of Bemerton Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

It was important two years ago to get the IPP prisoners in the right prison so that they could get the support they needed. We have gone from the 70% range to now 95% of IPP prisoners being in the right prison, which means that they can get the right support. Again, it comes back to the question: do we have prisons that are working well and do we have the right support teams around those individuals? I am seeing that regularly. When I go around prisons, I am seeing things getting better, but we still need to do more. We also need to do more to support individuals who are neurodiverse IPP prisoners. The autistic wings that we are developing are a really positive step forward.

[Baroness Hyde of Bemerton (Lab)]

My Lords, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman pointed to IPPs as a contributory factor in prisoner suicides. Indeed, the Minister of Justice’s own figures declare that there have been 92 self-inflicted deaths over the last 20 years since the introduction of the sentence—I can cite figures that suggest there have now been 96. What are we doing to reduce distress and keep people safe in our prisons, so that they may one day have the prospect of being safely released rather than dying by their own hand while in the care of the state?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

It is very important that we safely release people and that they are safe when they are in our care. That is especially so for IPP prisoners—as well as their families who are also trying to support them. Self-harm for both men and women is down in our prisons. The number of deaths up to March 2026 was also down, by 12%. Even so, these are people—and people who we need to help. We need to make sure that we have that wraparound support for them. They are often people who are unwell and, whether they are in secure hospital or not, they need our support.

Prisoner Early Release

Baroness Hyde of Bemerton Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right to raise the point about prison building, because we have to keep building these prisons. There is a role for them but there is also a role for technology. I have been keen on pushing technology in all parts of the justice system. I am pleased that we have £82 million going into the justice ID project, for example, and there is a load of AI work going on. In fact, if you walk into the Ministry of Justice and see someone who looks about 19 in jeans and a T-shirt, they are probably one of our amazing AI team, who are making a very big difference.

But it is very important that victims are notified as soon as we know. We work closely with those who sign up for the victim liaison scheme. We have the highest ever amount being invested in victim support services, over half a billion pounds, because we want to work with victims to make sure that they get transparency and all the support—for example, making sure that the exclusion zone is right, and explaining what the electronic monitoring provisions will be. It is important that we work together in the interests of victims, and that we keep investing in technology to improve accuracy and improve speed.

[Baroness Hyde of Bemerton (Lab)]

My Lords, having previously worked with people being released from prison and having helped people resettle in the community, I know how crucial the right support is after release to prevent reoffending and to prevent further victims. In light of this, is my noble friend the Minister confident that our Probation Service, which was so appallingly treated by the party opposite when they were in government, is now strong enough to cope?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that question. Probation has had a very difficult time, but I am pleased to tell noble Lords that 90% of our probation regions are now improving, ahead of last year. I am doing a series of roadshows at the moment, going around the country speaking to probation staff—in fact, I will be in Bristol tomorrow—talking about the £700 million of extra investment we are putting into probation. There are extra staff—in fact, we have recruited more staff than we expected and more than ever before, and we are investing in technology and more housing too. While probation has had a difficult time, we are seeing green shoots across the whole of the Probation Service, and the support we are giving it through extra stability, extra recruitment and extra tech will mean that it can get back to the levels of service it was delivering many years ago.

King’s Speech

Baroness Hyde of Bemerton Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hyde of Bemerton (Lab)]

I congratulate the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich for an important and moving maiden speech. The first person in her family to stay in education after 16, this tenacious Teessider has a lot to offer your Lordships’ House. When Bishop of Stepney, she was my amazing friend Reverend Alexandra’s boss, and it was following the untimely death of Reverend Alexandra’s husband, my wonderful friend Michael, that I learned that the right Reverend Prelate was at the vicarage with a bottle of gin for my newly widowed friend. When asked who was there, she simply said, “It’s Joanne”, showing her trademark humility, care and—frankly, with that bottle of gin—practicality.

She did not falter in the difficult and complex task of being the lead bishop for safeguarding. She continues as deputy leader for safeguarding and is an exemplary agent for culture change via stronger governance and processes. Having seen first hand the devastating impact of safeguarding failures, I wish her all the best in those important endeavours. I look forward to seeing the right reverend Prelate bring the rigour and compassion that have characterised her 26 years in ordained ministry to your Lordships’ House in years to come.

I very much welcome the measures outlined in the gracious Speech to improve the justice system, whether that is via changes to policing or the expedition of justice by the measures outlined in the courts modernisation Bill. It is clear that 14 years of austerity, neglect and, frankly, a lack of courage to pursue the evidence had left our justice system, from police to courts, prisons and probation, in a sorry mess. I am sorry that we have heard so much in this debate about the changes to jury systems and so little about what happens after people are incarcerated by the state.

We are all too aware, in these times, of the threat posed from outside the country and the arguments for increased defence spending to protect society, and this can be to the detriment and neglect of arguments for funding commensurate with ensuring safety for people currently inside our country, both those in our prisons and in wider society. If we cannot keep people in prison safe, how can we hope to achieve any of the other more lofty goals of recovery from addiction, education, rehabilitation, skills and training? This is about pragmatism. We do not just send people away to become non-people, never to be heard of again; we send people somewhere. We send them to prison.

Indeed, there is legislation in the gracious Speech, in the national security Bill, which will tackle the rise of accessing violent material online. This will lead to even more people being imprisoned under that legislation—but what happens then? In some cases, these prisons, smaller ones with less staff turnover, are able to help people effectively repair their lives in a variety of ways, tackling root causes. But, in too many cases, despite the best efforts of hard-working prison staff, they do not. Those prisons become a criminogenic factor in themselves. Being safe in custody is not about having an easy life—some tabloid fantasy. It is about the hard reality of prison and making it a safe place for people to live and work. In 2025, there were 79 self-inflicted deaths in prisons in England and Wales. The rate of self-harm was 837 per 1,000 prisoners. One in three women in prison self-harmed in 2025, and they were nine times more likely than men to do so.

There are all kinds of people in our prisons, as was recently vividly brought to life by James Graham’s play “Punch”, an adaptation of Jacob Dunne’s memoir about his 2011 manslaughter conviction following a single fatal punch. These people in prison could be my child or my neighbour; they are not just faceless people. Safer prisons lead to safer societies and I know that my noble friend the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending is deeply committed and is managing to turn things round. I am proud of those achievements, yet there is still a way to go. We cannot hope to deliver this Labour Government’s bold, landmark commitments, including halving violence against women and girls, without functioning prisons and probation, without safe prisons that are equipped not just to do that basic thing of keeping people alive but to enable people to live again and to contribute to society. Therefore, I urge the same commitment in this parliamentary Session to pursuing domestic and indeed prison safety as we are showing on the international front.

Better Prisons: Less Crime (Justice and Home Affairs Committee Report)

Baroness Hyde of Bemerton Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hyde of Bemerton (Lab)]

I congratulate the noble Lords on their maiden speeches. They were truly excellent contributions, and I look forward to the one that is yet to come in this debate. I am delighted that they have all chosen to speak and make the ground of their maiden speeches the topic of prisons, which is a topic very close to my heart. I am delighted that we have already heard a lot about the particular plight of women in prison.

I have chosen this debate for my first speech after my maiden speech—the difficult second album genre of speeches—having studied and worked in prisons for many years. I will restrict my comments to three particular areas: the purpose of prison, which has been very well covered already, so I will keep that brief; the use of release on temporary licence to enable people to work; and supporting prison staff.

If we want to reduce crime and ensure that there are fewer victims, we have to sort out prisons—I cannot state it more plainly than that. I welcome the report and my noble friend the Minister’s response to it. But there was a surprising omission, and that is the critical role of experts and those with experience in helping policymakers to get this right—that is both people with lived experience in the justice system and those who work in it.

We have already heard that the context is truly grim. I will not repeat all the things we have heard, but I just make your Lordships’ House aware that the current rate of self-harm in our prisons is 859 incidents per 1,000 prisoners.

I now turn to the second recommendation in the report, which states that

“the Ministry of Justice … should set out a clear and consistent … purpose of prison”.


As others have eloquently stated, if we want the public to understand the decisions being made about prisons, they have to understand what prisons are for. What is the primary purpose? It is an urgent, practical question; it is not an esoteric, academic ponderance, because the answer to that question then dictates a load of answers to what actually happens in our prisons, day in, day out.

I raise this particularly because most people in our prisons now will be released back into wider society. About 14,000 people are released every three months. What each prisoner experiences in prison then shapes how they go on to live after release. We must communicate that purpose and ensure the visibility of evidence for what reduces reoffending and restores communities and lives.

That brings me to my second theme: the increased use of release on temporary licence to unlock employment opportunities. I know that my noble friend the Minister is as passionate as I am about the role of employment in preventing reoffending. Indeed, I first encountered him when I worked for Working Chance, which we have already heard about, supporting women with criminal convictions into work while he was becoming a household name through his pioneering employment schemes in prisons and after. We know that work can provide dignity, purpose and a reason to get out of bed in the morning, and it gives you new skills.

The use of release on temporary licence, which is often limited to day release—people going into the community to work or volunteer, then returning to the prison at night—can help build confidence and get people ready for release. The scheme is available only to some prisoners, appropriately vetted near the end of their sentence, but government data shows that, in 2024, 99.8% of those released on temporary licence completed the period successfully and safely, and those prisoners given release on temporary licence have lower rates of reoffending on release.

When I worked at Working Chance, I had a colleague who had been on release on temporary licence who came in every day to work with us, and about a month in she was finally released from prison. Let us call her Katie. On the day she was released from prison, her whole world shifted. She was struggling to navigate new relationships and thinking, “Where am I going live? How will this go?” But in the midst of that, she continued to come to the job that she had done for several months, from nine until five, Monday to Friday, sitting at the same desk and drinking her tea from the same mug with familiar colleagues. She continued in that role for several years and then got a better job in a large public sector body. The reoffending rate at Working Chance, when I worked there, was 3%.

Witnessing Katie’s transition from prison on that day-release programme gave me a front-row experience of what the data already showed us. It showed somebody able to successfully transition into normal life and make a contribution. Most people in prison today are going be released, so let us crack on with that.

I have left myself with no time to talk about the importance of staff. They do a very tough job. I ask that my noble friend the Minister consider meeting with me to discuss how we can help staff exposed those traumatic events. I welcome the recommendations around sickness levels.

We all agree that it would be better for staff to work in less violent, less understaffed and less traumatising environments, so let us get a clear purpose for prisons, increased use of ROTL and greater support for our prison staff, because most people in prison today are going to be released.