Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reliability of their data on whether women leaving prison have (1) safe, and (2) sustainable, accommodation.

Our vision is that no one who is subject to probation supervision is released from prison homeless.

Women on remand are supported to meet resettlement needs and prepare for release by Probation staff in prisons. We will supplement this support from Probation staff with access to specialist accommodation support for all women on remand or sentenced in custody by the summer of this year.

We currently provide a Community Accommodation Service (CAS3), which provides temporary accommodation for sentenced women at risk of homelessness upon release from prison, in five probation regions and aim to expand this to all regions across England and Wales.

In 2021, we introduced Housing Specialists in twenty prisons, including four women’s prisons, to support prisons and probation in their strategic response to reducing homelessness. We intend to increase these to 48 across England and Wales, including across the women’s estate.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) launched their Accommodation for Ex-Offenders (AFEO) scheme in July 2021 to support offenders at risk of homelessness into private rental tenancies. Overall, this financial year, £13 million has been allocated to 87 schemes across 145 local authorities.

To ensure consistent and accurate data recording, HMPPS, in collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and the Welsh Government, has recently updated the Accommodation Recording Guidance to ensure Probation regions have a clear and consistent understanding of the accommodation status definitions, and how to record accurately. The Guidance defines homelessness as where an individual is rough sleeping, squatting, residing in night shelters, emergency hostels or campsites. Individuals with other forms of temporary, short-term or otherwise unstable accommodation are encompassed by the ‘unsettled accommodation’ category in published statistics.

Accommodation circumstances for offenders are reported annually as official statistics. Data for the period 01 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 will be published in July 2022 in the Community Performance Annual report.