Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps her Department has taken to help reduce reoffending in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire.

The Government is committed to tackling the causes of reoffending by giving people the tools to move away from crime. That is why we are investing in a wide range of interventions to directly support a prisoner’s rehabilitation journey, including accommodation and employment services.

We are delivering a transitional accommodation service (CAS3) which provides prison leavers who are under probation supervision and at risk of homelessness with up to 12 weeks of accommodation to provide a stable base on release. CAS3 is in place across England and Wales with the constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme and the county of Staffordshire coming under the West Midlands probation region.

We now also have dedicated Prison Employment Leads in every resettlement prison to match prisoners to jobs on release, including in several Staffordshire prisons such as HMP Dovegate, HMP Drake Hall and HMP Featherstone. We have also recently launched regional Employment Councils, which for the first time will bring businesses together with probation services and the Department for Work and Pensions to support offenders in prison and the community. The constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme and the county of Staffordshire are covered by the East, North & West Midlands Employment Council.