Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure prisoners do not become homeless upon release.

His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service delivers a transitional accommodation service, known as the Community Accommodation Service – Tier 3 (CAS3), which offers prison leavers who are subject to probation supervision and at risk of homelessness on release up to 12 weeks of basic, temporary accommodation to provide a stable base on release. The service has been gradually rolled out nationwide since July 2021 and since then has supported over 12,200 prison leavers who would otherwise have been homeless.

However, we know there is more to do to ensure people leaving prison can move to long-term settled accommodation, and will work closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to develop a long-term strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.