Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure continuity of mental health care for people leaving prison.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Chief Medical Officer’s report on the health of people in prison, on probation and in the secure National Health Service estate in England was published on 6 November 2025 and we are carefully considering its findings and recommendations.
The Department is committed to working with health and justice partners to support the continuity of mental health care for people leaving prison. This includes supporting prison leavers who have engaged in treatment while in custody to continue to access services in the community.
One service available is RECONNECT, which provides a care after custody service designed to improve the continuity of care for people leaving prison or an immigration removal centre who have an identified health need. The service works with individuals before release to support their transition to community-based services, helping to safeguard health gains made while in custody.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government (1) how many, and (2) what proportion of, prisoner leavers who were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm were classed as homeless or rough sleeping at release between April 2024 to March 2025.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is set out in the table below:
Offenders assessed as high to very high risk of serious harm, released homeless or rough sleeping on first night of release, England and Wales, April 2024 - March 2025.
Risk of Serious Harm category | Releases from custody | Homeless, not rough sleeping | Rough sleeping | Homeless, not rough sleeping (%) | Rough sleeping (%) |
Very High | 2,765 | 20 | 330 | 0.7% | 11.9% |
High | 38,435 | 330 | 4,980 | 0.9% | 13.0% |
Total | 41,205 | 350 | 5,310 | 0.8% | 12.9% |
All prisoners at risk of becoming homeless and who are supervised by probation can be offered up to 12 weeks of basic accommodation on release by HM Prison and Probation Service with support to move to settled accommodation. This programme has been gradually rolled out nationwide since July 2021 and since then has supported over 23,100 prison leavers who would otherwise have been homeless. For those prison leavers and people on probation who present the highest levels of risk of harm, placements can be provided through our CAS1 Approved Premises provision.
Data caveats:
Data sourced from nDelius; while data has been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the possibility of errors cannot be eliminated.
To protect the disclosure of personal information of any individual, all cases within the tables are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.
Releases from custody include: releases following recall, releases following committal to custody for breach of post sentence supervision and releases at sentence expiry or post sentence supervision expiry.
Release on temporary licence (RoTL), releases where the individual is subject to same-day recall to custody, releases from unsupervised short sentences and releases both to and from Immigration Removal Centres are not included.
Where an offender has been released from custody more than once in the period, they will be counted once for each release, with the accommodation circumstance relevant at the time of that release.
In instances where an individual has had multiple releases on the same day, only one of the records is assessed. All other instances of the records are excluded.
Due to use of different inclusion criteria and data cleansing, the total volume of releases in this dataset will not necessarily match official statistics for total offender releases.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has he made of the potential impact of the Prison Education Service on the future prospects of prisoners.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS are committed to improving the future prospects of prisoners through comprehensive education and skills provision. Last year, a new Prisoner Education Service was launched which is designed to improve the literacy, numeracy and wider skills of all prisoners who need it and support them to gain qualifications that will increase their employment prospects on release. New contracts include a strengthened specification for high-quality delivery, improved screening and assessment, clearer requirements for support for additional learning needs, and a new Careers, Information, Advice and Guidance service. These new contracts are underpinned by improved digital infrastructure, including the Learning & Work Progress Service and new screening and assessment tools which will help prisoners by reducing repeated assessments and ensuring that information about their progress follows them across the estate.
Education activities in each prison are planned by Heads of Education, Skills and Work who bring teaching expertise into prison leadership to ensure provision meets the needs of the local cohort. Prisoners can access a comprehensive curriculum including reading support, functional skills, digital skills, vocational and technical training, and opportunities to progress to higher-level learning. Governors can use the Dynamic Purchasing System to commission specialist provision that reflects local labour market needs and the requirements of their population. The Ministry of Justice is undertaking a full evaluation of the new Prisoner Education Service.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps is he taking to develop a comprehensive education programme for prisoners.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS are committed to improving the future prospects of prisoners through comprehensive education and skills provision. Last year, a new Prisoner Education Service was launched which is designed to improve the literacy, numeracy and wider skills of all prisoners who need it and support them to gain qualifications that will increase their employment prospects on release. New contracts include a strengthened specification for high-quality delivery, improved screening and assessment, clearer requirements for support for additional learning needs, and a new Careers, Information, Advice and Guidance service. These new contracts are underpinned by improved digital infrastructure, including the Learning & Work Progress Service and new screening and assessment tools which will help prisoners by reducing repeated assessments and ensuring that information about their progress follows them across the estate.
Education activities in each prison are planned by Heads of Education, Skills and Work who bring teaching expertise into prison leadership to ensure provision meets the needs of the local cohort. Prisoners can access a comprehensive curriculum including reading support, functional skills, digital skills, vocational and technical training, and opportunities to progress to higher-level learning. Governors can use the Dynamic Purchasing System to commission specialist provision that reflects local labour market needs and the requirements of their population. The Ministry of Justice is undertaking a full evaluation of the new Prisoner Education Service.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to protect women and girls from violent offenders who have been released.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government was elected with a landmark mission: to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. The ‘Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy’ sets out stronger perpetrator management, including the commitment to nationally rollout Domestic Abuse Protection Orders across all police forces in England and Wales, which is critical in meeting this government ambition.
The Probation Service robustly manages offenders released from custody with a range of tools in the community and can respond to any breaches of licence with recall to prison where appropriate. The Sentencing Bill strengthens this by giving new powers to Probation to prohibit offenders from driving, attending public events and entering pubs, clubs and bars. It also introduces restriction zones, which will limit the movements of serious sexual and violent offenders to a specific geographical area, where appropriate, giving victims the peace of mind they deserve.
Further, regarding Electronic Monitoring (EM), the Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence (DAPOL) pilot operates across eight probation regions, allowing Probation Practitioners to impose electronically monitored licence conditions on eligible prison leavers at the point of release from custody where necessary and proportionate. Conditions may include curfews, exclusion zones, required attendance at specified appointments, and GPS trail monitoring, with multiple applied risk assessments support it. DAPOL can also run alongside Alcohol Monitoring on Licence (AML) where alcohol misuse is linked to risk. Evaluation findings indicate that DAPOL provides reassurance to victims, with Victim Liaison Officers reporting that the ability to evidence breaches quickly helps reduce victim anxiety and strengthens confidence in the justice system.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the political situation in Georgia.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Democracy in Georgia is under threat, and we are working closely with our European allies to respond to that concern.
Last October, I reiterated my concerns to Georgian Foreign Minister Botchorishvili over democratic backsliding, opposition arrests and attacks on allied Ambassadors.
We urge Georgia’s leadership to reverse repressive legislation, release political prisoners, and return the country to a democratic path.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many and what proportion of prisoner leavers were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm between April 2024 and March 2025.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
24,264 prisoner leavers released between April 2024 and March 2025 were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm at the point of release between April 2024 and March 2025. This is 42% of all releases.
Public protection is this Government’s top priority.
Offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions – including exclusion zones, restriction zones and electronic monitoring – and they can be returned to prison if they breach any of these rules, in such a way as to demonstrate that their risk is no longer manageable in the community.
Notes
For information on the definition of ‘release’ in this context, please see the Notes page of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly Releases tables which can be found here: prison-releases-Jan-to-Mar-2025.ods.
Information on release has been drawn from the Prison National Offender Management Information System (P-NOMIS). This has been linked to risk of harm information on National Delius (nDelius), the probation case management system.
Where the release could be matched between the two systems, risk of harm is as assessed at release. In cases where the release could not be matched, the risk of harm is drawn from information on NDelius closest to the release date.
Data are drawn from large administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the information collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system due to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Bob Blackman (Conservative - Harrow East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will make planning permission for China’s new embassy contingent on the release of political prisoners in Hong Kong.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 14 July 2025 in response to Question 65869.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the UN Committee Against Torture’s concluding observations on Bahrain, issued on 28 November 2024 (CAT/C/BHR/CO/4), and in particular of the Committee’s call for the release of human rights defenders allegedly detained and imprisoned in retaliation for their work, including Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, Abduljalil al-Singace and Hassan Mushaima.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
I refer the Noble Lord to the answers provided to questions HL13124 on 12 January 2026 , HL8922 on 15 July 2025, and HL4957 on 25 February 2025.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals convicted of terrorism-related offences are currently present in the UK following completion of their custodial sentences.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Home Office does not centrally record the data as requested. However, the department does publish data on the numbers of terrorist offenders released from prison in Great Britain. This includes offenders released at the end of their sentence, as well as those released on licence. This is part of the official statistics publication on the Operation of Police Powers under the Terrorism Acts, which are published quarterly on gov.uk. A total of 41 terrorist prisoners were released from custody in Great Britain in the year ending 30 June 2025.
The UK has one of the strongest counter-terrorism frameworks in the world, including a range of powers to support the management of terrorist offenders upon their release. For example, terrorist offenders can be subject to strict licence conditions and must comply with notification requirements upon release, which allows the police and other authorities to monitor and manage any ongoing risk that they pose.
This legislative framework has been strengthened over recent years and we keep it under continuous review to ensure operational partners have the tools they need to manage the risk posed by terrorist offenders.