Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the adequate provision of (a) accommodation and (b) support for prisoners on release.

Everyone leaving prison should have somewhere safe and secure to live; accommodation enables offenders to hold down a job and reduces the likelihood of them reoffending.

We have invested an additional £22m per annum over the remaining life of the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts to deliver an enhanced Through the Gate resettlement service to people leaving prison to prepare them for release. The enhanced service includes the requirement that CRCs complete specific, tailored, tasks to help prisoners to secure and maintain settled accommodation, gain employment and manage debt and their financial affairs. During the Covid period most of this support is being provided remotely. After a prison sentence, service users are supervised and supported by Probation Officers in the Community.

As part of its Covid-19 pandemic response, Her Majesty Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) have set up seven Homelessness Prevention Taskforces (HPTs) to coordinate the sourcing of accommodation for those offenders released early, in order to ensure no offender is released early without accommodation in place. It has also put in place an ‘Exceptional Delivery Model’ for CRC services during the current Covid-19 crisis to ensure that the support an individual requires to address their criminogenic needs will still be provided during this period.

Additionally, Government has now decided that because of public health concerns and public protection considerations, there is a need to provide accommodation for a larger cohort of prison leavers. The Ministry of Justice has secured up to £8.5 million to support individuals at risk of homelessness on their release from prison for up to eight weeks and help to move on into permanent accommodation. This scheme was originally due to run until 26^th June; however, we have recently undertaken our first review and, following this, have extended the scheme until 31 July.