Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prisoners were released without accommodation from each private prison in England and Wales in the most recent 12 months for which figures are available.

Andrew Selous

We are fully committed to the rehabilitation of offenders so as to turn their lives around and reduce the risk of their re-offending in future. Dealing with their accommodation needs on release from prison is an integral part of that.

The table below shows the number and percentage of offenders by recorded type of accommodation on discharge from contracted-out prisons 2013-14.

Contracted Prisons: Accommodation on Release

	Settled Accommodation on Release	% Settled Accommodation on Release	Not in Settled Accommodation on Release	% Not in settled Accommodation on release	Total Offender Releases
2011/12	13,775	90.5%	1,445	9.5%	15,220
2012/13	14,297	84.9%	2,537	15.1%	16,834
2012/13 excluding HMP Thameside	13,892	90.2%	1,506	9.8%	15,398
2013/14	16,076	91.6%	1,472	8.4%	17,548

Notes

Settled accommodation covers the following categories: permanent housing, supported housing, approved premises, other hostels and BASS accommodation.

Not in settled accommodation means: transient/short term accommodation, No Fixed Address, or No Information.

Figures for 2012/13 are shown both including and excluding HMP Thameside, whose low outcomes in their first year of operation impacted on the overall outcomes.

The figures show that less than 5% of prisoners were recorded as being of no fixed abode upon release from contracted-out prisons in 2013-14.

The figures in the above table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

It should also be noted that recorded accommodation type is based on prisoner self-reporting. We are aware of the inherent limitations in relying on self-reporting and are developing alternative measures aimed at ensuring that prisons and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) managing low and medium risk offenders fulfil their respective roles in preparing prisoners for release and helping them to find suitable accommodation.

Under the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, all prisoners will benefit from a universal resettlement service and genuine continuity of provision ‘Through the Gate’ from custody to the community. We have established a network of Resettlement Prisons to facilitate the smooth transition from custody to community to enable the new CRCs to work with those prisoners returning to their local area.