Business of the House

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 29th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Leadsom]

The hon. Lady raises a very important issue—she often raises important justice issues—which clearly has great resonance in her constituency. She will be aware that the Government have invested £100 million in recruiting 2,500 new prison officers, and that we are creating 10,000 new high-quality modern prison places to ensure that we can focus our efforts on changing behaviour to try to minimise reoffending. At the same time, our work on reforming probation means that we are now monitoring 40,000 offenders who would previously have been released with no supervision. There is much more to be done, but we are improving the way in which we monitor those who have offended.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

From next Tuesday, when my Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 comes into force, every English local authority will have a statutory duty to assist local residents who are threatened with homelessness or who are homeless themselves. The Act will assist anyone threatened with homelessness, but may we have a statement after Easter on what the Government will do to help to combat the problem of rough sleeping right now?

[Andrea Leadsom]

I congratulate my hon. Friend again on his Homelessness Reduction Act, which is going to transform lives. He talks about the importance of solving the problem of rough sleeping and he is absolutely right. The Government are measuring it better. We have a “No Second Night Out” policy to actively identify and support rough sleepers, and we are taking unprecedented action to help people before they become homeless. Those are all very important measures.