Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were released without accommodation in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested can be found in Table 3 of the “Housed on Release from Custody Tables” in the Offender Accommodation Outcomes statistical publication at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-accommodation-outcomes-update-to-march-2025.
We are committed to ensuring that robust pre-release plans are created for those leaving custody, so that accommodation needs are identified early and the right support is put in place. Dedicated Pre-Release Teams in prisons work closely with individuals to identify immediate needs, co-ordinate referrals to relevant services, and support continuity between custody and the community.
In the National Plan to End Homelessness, the Government has committed to reduce the proportion of people released homeless from prison by 50% by the end of this parliament. 50 prison-based Strategic Housing Specialists across England and Wales work with probation teams and Local Authorities to enable a multi-agency approach to securing housing before release, including by establishing pre-release accommodation panels with appropriate local authorities. We are also investing in integrating digital community accommodation services to make it easier to identify and match individuals to the right housing-related support at the right time.
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: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve pre-release planning to ensure that prison leavers do not become homeless or sleep rough following release.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are committed to ensuring that robust pre-release plans are created for those leaving custody, so that accommodation needs are identified early and the right support is put in place. Dedicated Pre-Release Teams in prisons work closely with individuals to identify immediate needs, coordinate referrals to relevant services, and support continuity between custody and the community.
In the National Plan to End Homelessness, the Government has committed to reduce the proportion of people released from prison homeless by 50% by the end of this parliament. 50 prison-based Strategic Housing Specialists (SHS) across England and Wales work with probation teams and Local Authorities to enable a multi-agency approach to securing housing before release, including by establishing pre-release accommodation panels with appropriate Local Authorities. We are also investing in integrating digital community accommodation services to make it easier to identify and match individuals to the right housing-related support at the right time.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2025 to Question 90780 on Prisoners' Release: Housing, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the (a) saturation and (b) clustering of housing facilities for people supervised by the Probation Service on communities.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Statutory responsibility for housing and homelessness provision in both England and Wales lies with local authorities. To supplement this, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) offers a three-tier structure of temporary accommodation, known as the Community Accommodation Service (CAS), for a small proportion of prison leavers and persons on bail. Many offenders leaving custody will have their own accommodation to return to.
CAS properties are sourced according to a demand analysis undertaken by HMPPS, with as wide a geographical spread as possible. They are normally in areas close to local amenities, to assist with effective rehabilitation and sentence management planning. Services have been expanded across the country in recent years to meet demand for places. This serves both to help prison leavers at risk of homelessness and to protect the public.
Other individuals under probation supervision who are in need of assistance on release from custody may be accommodated by the local authority or in accordance with private arrangements. When deciding whether to approve a proposed address, the probation practitioner will make a risk assessment and will also have regard to the offender’s sentence planning objectives
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners were (a) released into homelessness and (b) homeless three months after release in each quarter since January 2022.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are taking a number of steps to reduce numbers of those being released from prison homeless, including measures to improve joint processes and guidance across prisons, probation and local authorities. Overall statutory responsibility for housing and homelessness lies with local authorities in both England and Wales.
We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and other Departments through the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to develop a new long-term cross-government strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.
We deliver our Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) to support prison leavers who are subject to probation supervision and at risk of homelessness, by offering up to 12 weeks of basic transitional accommodation to provide a stable base on release.
We employ 50 prison-based Strategic Housing Specialists, including nine across the female estate, to support prisons to reduce homelessness on release by working in partnership with probation teams and Local Authorities.
Published figures relating to offender accommodation outcomes can be found here: Offender Accommodation Outcome Statistics - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of people needing homelessness relief from local authorities on release from prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are taking a number of steps to reduce numbers of those being released from prison homeless, including measures to improve joint processes and guidance across prisons, probation and local authorities. Overall statutory responsibility for housing and homelessness lies with local authorities in both England and Wales.
We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and other Departments through the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to develop a new long-term cross-government strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.
We deliver our Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) to support prison leavers who are subject to probation supervision and at risk of homelessness, by offering up to 12 weeks of basic transitional accommodation to provide a stable base on release.
We employ 50 prison-based Strategic Housing Specialists, including nine across the female estate, to support prisons to reduce homelessness on release by working in partnership with probation teams and Local Authorities.
Published figures relating to offender accommodation outcomes can be found here: Offender Accommodation Outcome Statistics - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve the rehabilitation of prisoners.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are tackling the root causes of reoffending by investing in a range of interventions which address offenders’ underlying criminogenic needs and support their rehabilitation journey. This includes education, employment, accommodation and access to substance misuse treatment.
We know that education, employment, and accommodation can reduce the chance of reoffending. That is why we are delivering vocational courses, a future skills programme, and expanding the prisoner apprenticeship scheme. All 93 resettlement prisons have key roles in place to prepare prisoners for employment on release, and we have launched regional Employment Councils, which for the first time bring businesses together with prisons, probation, and the Department for Work and Pensions to support prison leavers. We are also expanding our community accommodation service - to support prison leavers at risk of homelessness by providing up to 12 weeks of temporary accommodation for those under probation supervision.
We also know that drug treatment is effective in reducing the risk of reoffending. We work closely with health partners to identify prisoners with a drug need, refer them into treatment, and support recovery. We have funded Incentivised Substance-Free Living units (ISFLs) in 85 prisons, where prisoners sign a behaviour compact, agree to be regularly drug tested and can access enhanced opportunities compared to a standard wing.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce repeat offending.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are tackling the root causes of reoffending by investing in a range of interventions which address offenders’ underlying criminogenic needs and support their rehabilitation journey. This includes education, employment, accommodation and access to substance misuse treatment.
We know that education, employment, and accommodation can reduce the chance of reoffending. That is why we are delivering vocational courses, a future skills programme, and expanding the prisoner apprenticeship scheme. All 93 resettlement prisons have key roles in place to prepare prisoners for employment on release, and we have launched regional Employment Councils, which for the first time bring businesses together with prisons, probation, and the Department for Work and Pensions to support prison leavers. We are also expanding our community accommodation service - to support prison leavers at risk of homelessness by providing up to 12 weeks of temporary accommodation for those under probation supervision.
We also know that drug treatment is effective in reducing the risk of reoffending. We work closely with health partners to identify prisoners with a drug need, refer them into treatment, and support recovery. We have funded Incentivised Substance-Free Living units (ISFLs) in 85 prisons, where prisoners sign a behaviour compact, agree to be regularly drug tested and can access enhanced opportunities compared to a standard wing.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to (a) support prisoner rehabilitation and (b) reduce trends in the level of homelessness amongst released prisoners.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Government is committed to improving rehabilitation services for offenders by giving them the tools to move away from crime. We work alongside other government departments investing in a wide range of interventions to directly support a prisoner’s rehabilitation journey.
This includes improving prisoners’ access to purposeful activity, such as education; delivering pre-release plans for all those leaving custody; and ensuring that ex-offenders leave prison with a job and the skills needed to lead law abiding lives. We have recently launched regional Employment Councils, which for the first time bring businesses together with probation services and the Department for Work and Pensions to support offenders in prison and the community.
We know that accommodation is key to supporting prisoner rehabilitation. Our CAS3 service provides transitional accommodation for prison leavers who are under probation supervision and at risk of homelessness for up to 12 weeks, to provide a stable base upon release. It is currently available in all probation regions, and we are further expanding provision to support more prison leavers at risk of homelessness each year. We are also working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and other departments on the development of a new cross-government strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
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.