Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure offenders convinced of child criminal exploitation are not released into the same community as the victims on the completion of a custodial sentence.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Individuals convicted of serious sexual, violent and terrorist offences are managed under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) on release from custody. MAPPA enables the Police, Probation and Prison Services to work together with other agencies to manage the risks posed by these individuals in the community, in order to protect victims and members of the public.
All offenders released from custodial sentences before the end of their sentence will be supervised on licence in the community by the Probation Service. Victims who opt in to the Victim Contact Scheme (VCS), which is available for victims of specified sexual or violent offences where the sentence is 12 months or more, have the statutory right to request licence conditions for when the offender is released. Typically, these conditions will include a non-contact condition and exclusion zones, prohibiting the offender from entering areas where the victim lives, works or travels to frequently.
Where victims do not qualify for the VCS, the supervising officer in the Probation Service will undertake a risk assessment and may request licence conditions to mitigate identified risks where they relate to victims of the index offence.
Licence conditions end when the offender completes his/her sentence. However, where the Police have concerns about an offender’s ongoing risk to a victim or the general public, they may apply may apply to the Magistrates Court for the imposition of a civil order, which may place restrictions or obligations on the offender which replicate some of the protections of the licence.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he is taking steps to ensure offenders convicted of Child Sexual Exploitation are not released into the same community as the victims on completion of a custodial sentence.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Individuals convicted of serious sexual, violent and terrorist offences are managed under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) on release from custody. MAPPA enables the Police, Probation and Prison Services to work together with other agencies to manage the risks posed by these individuals in the community, in order to protect victims and members of the public.
All offenders released from custodial sentences before the end of their sentence will be supervised on licence in the community by the Probation Service. Victims who opt in to the Victim Contact Scheme (VCS), which is available for victims of specified sexual or violent offences where the sentence is 12 months or more, have the statutory right to request licence conditions for when the offender is released. Typically, these conditions will include a non-contact condition and exclusion zones, prohibiting the offender from entering areas where the victim lives, works or travels to frequently.
Where victims do not qualify for the VCS, the supervising officer in the Probation Service will undertake a risk assessment and may request licence conditions to mitigate identified risks where they relate to victims of the index offence.
Licence conditions end when the offender completes his/her sentence. However, where the Police have concerns about an offender’s ongoing risk to a victim or the general public, they may apply may apply to the Magistrates Court for the imposition of a civil order, which may place restrictions or obligations on the offender which replicate some of the protections of the licence.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure prison leavers are aware of the resettlement services available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Effective resettlement of prison leavers is a core part of our efforts to reduce re-offending. This includes making sure someone has a home, family links where appropriate, access to healthcare, a job or further education, and/or access to benefits.
Probation practitioners in the community coordinate the overall rehabilitation of offenders as they leave prison and serve their licence, supported by Pre-Release Teams (PRT) who provide support to address identified immediate resettlement needs and pre-release support for all people in prison. The immediate resettlement needs of all prisoners are assessed on entry to prison and reviewed pre-release.
Utilising both prison-based services and Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS), there is a wide range of resettlement support covering accommodation, employment, dependency and recovery, personal wellbeing and finance, benefit and debt services. CRS also offers a ‘mentoring’ service, which can be delivered pre-release and follow offenders through the gate for those being released on licence to support community integration. Community probation practitioners and PRTs work proactively with prisoners to build pre-release plans and refer into these services to ensure that the right support is in place for release.
In addition, we have also introduced employment hubs where prisoners can access job vacancies and support with applications, and Prison Employment Leads who support with work-readiness and match them to jobs on release.
To further improve awareness for prison leavers, we are introducing Resettlement Passports, which will bring together key information and services that an individual needs in one place to resettle into the community, such as bank accounts, CVs and identity documents to prove the right to work and rent, as well as appointment and contact information to enable prison leavers to engage with resettlement services available.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prison leavers are employed six months after their release.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We know that employment reduces the chance of reoffending significantly, by up to nine percentage points. In order to grow, businesses need skills and labour to fill the nearly one million vacancies in the UK right now. Prison leavers have a role to play in filling those vacancies, particularly in sectors with skills shortages such as construction and hospitality, that the economy needs to grow, while also cutting crime and delivering safer streets. That’s why we’ve invested heavily in delivering key employment reforms across 93 resettlement prisons, including:
I am pleased to say that the proportion of prison leavers in employment six months after release more than doubled from 14% in April 2021 to over 30% in March 2023. The next release of this data will be published this summer
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prison leavers were homeless in each year since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data on accommodation outcomes on the first night of release from custody is published in the Community Performance Annual Statistics. Data is only available from 2017/18 onwards. From this point, accommodation performance metrics were introduced to the probation performance framework with reliable data not available for previous years. The data can be found here: Prison and Probation Performance Statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
We are delivering our ground-breaking transitional accommodation service, known as Community Accommodation Service – Tier 3 (CAS-3), so prison-leavers have a guaranteed 12 weeks of basic, temporary accommodation to provide a stable base on release. By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of their release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions versus non-CAS3 regions.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of people who were released from remand had no fixed address in each of the last three years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are delivering our groundbreaking transitional accommodation service, known as Community Accommodation Service – Tier 3 (CAS-3), so prison-leavers who are subject to probation supervision have a guaranteed 12-weeks of basic, temporary accommodation to provide a stable base on release. By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of their release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions versus non-CAS3 regions.
Data for accommodation outcomes on the first night of release from custody, broken down by sentence length, is published in the Community Performance Annual Statistics.
Data for accommodation outcomes for people on community sentences is not collected at commencement of order; however, data from the case management system in relation to accommodation 3 months after commencement is published.
Latest statistics for April 2022 to March 2023 for both are available here: Community Performance Annual, update to March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Accommodation data for releases from remand could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people that had served sentences of 12 months or less were released from custody without a permanent address in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are delivering our groundbreaking transitional accommodation service, known as Community Accommodation Service – Tier 3 (CAS-3), so prison-leavers who are subject to probation supervision have a guaranteed 12-weeks of basic, temporary accommodation to provide a stable base on release. By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of their release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions versus non-CAS3 regions.
Data for accommodation outcomes on the first night of release from custody, broken down by sentence length, is published in the Community Performance Annual Statistics.
Data for accommodation outcomes for people on community sentences is not collected at commencement of order; however, data from the case management system in relation to accommodation 3 months after commencement is published.
Latest statistics for April 2022 to March 2023 for both are available here: Community Performance Annual, update to March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Accommodation data for releases from remand could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department collects data on the number of individuals released on the End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme who have committed a criminal offence after their release.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are constantly monitoring the use of End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) and its impact.
We are taking action to drive down the reoffending rate for all offenders by investing in a wide range of rehabilitative interventions to get them into skills training, work, and stable accommodation. This includes delivering our groundbreaking transitional accommodation service, known as Community Accommodation Service – Tier 3 (CAS-3), so prison-leavers have a guaranteed 12 weeks of basic, temporary accommodation to provide a stable base on release. By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of their release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions versus non-CAS3 regions.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an estimate of the number of probation officers required to support prisoners granted early release.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We have increased funding for the Probation Service by an extra £155 million a year and onboarded over 4,000 trainee probation officers over the last three years.
As announced on 11 March, we will reset probation so that practitioners prioritise early engagement at the point where offenders are most likely to breach their licence conditions, allowing frontline staff to maximise supervision of the most serious offenders.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the (a) number of housing placements available for prisoners on early release and (b) potential impact of the early release scheme on social housing waiting lists.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is committed to preventing homelessness and works closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Welsh Government to do so. Prisons and probation have a statutory duty to refer someone at risk of homelessness to a local authority for assistance, and we have worked closely with DLUHC on the design and delivery of their Accommodation for Ex-Offenders scheme. We have set up a Cross-Whitehall Accommodation Board, attended by officials from MoJ, HMPPS, Welsh Government and DLUHC, to ensure collaboration across policy and operational areas.
In July 2021, we launched our groundbreaking Community Accommodation Service Tier-3, to guarantee up to 12-weeks temporary accommodation to prison leavers subject to probation supervision who are at risk of homelessness on release, including those released under the End of Custody Supervised Licence measure. From July 2023 the service was expanded across all probation regions in England and Wales and continues to bring new beds online as the service embeds.
In 2022-23, 86% of prison leavers were in accommodation on their first night of release from custody.