Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support he plans to make available to prevent homelessness for prison leavers in the (a) Wales, (b) North East, (c) West Midlands, (d) East Midlands, (e) London, (f) South West and (g) South Central National Probation Service region, from 1 April 2021.

While our new scheme to support prison leavers will begin in five of the twelve NPS regions this year, there will continue to be a range of support available for those leaving prison in the other seven regions, including offender management, rehabilitation services and charity organisations across England and Wales for those at risk of homelessness. In addition, we have set up seven Homelessness Prevention Taskforces (HPTs) to help find accommodation for offenders upon release. These taskforces were initially set up for each of the 7 old divisions but will soon reflect the new regional arrangement of the NPS.

HPTs will work across England and Wales to ensure strategic links are in place with Local Authorities, Police, Housing Associations, substance misuse services and health services. They will also work closely with offender managers, who retain responsibility for individuals and their rehabilitation plan, to help homeless offenders into stable accommodation.

HM Prison and Probation Service has published an Accommodation Operational Framework that sets out the roles and responsibilities of prisons, probation and wider partners and a series of commitments We are currently putting in place regional contracts with accommodation support providers under the new Dynamic Framework ahead of the unification of probation services in June.

The future performance framework for probation unified delivery will include a target on the number of individuals being housed on release from custody (90%), aligned with current prisons metrics, to promote joint working between prisons and the National Probation Service in supporting prisoners leaving custody to find a home.

We will also measure settled accommodation for all people under supervision (those released from prison and those on community sentences). This will assess the status three months after commencement of supervision (80%), supporting referrals to accommodation services provided under the Dynamic Framework.