Simon Fell (Barrow and Furness) (Con) I beg to move, That the Bill
be now read a Second time. You will know, perhaps more than many in
this place, that I am a simple man, Mr Deputy Speaker. Prior to
researching this Bill, I had not spent a great deal of time
thinking about the criminal justice system or how it worked. I had
laboured under the belief that if someone committed a crime, served
their time and paid back their debt to society, they would be
afforded every...Request free trial
(Barrow and Furness) (Con)
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
You will know, perhaps more than many in this place, that I am a
simple man, Mr Deputy Speaker. Prior to researching this Bill, I
had not spent a great deal of time thinking about the criminal
justice system or how it worked. I had laboured under the belief
that if someone committed a crime, served their time and paid
back their debt to society, they would be afforded every
opportunity to succeed on their release from prison and make a
fresh start. I was disappointed to find out that often that is
not the case and many people released from prison, especially
those released on Fridays, are almost set up to fail from the
moment they set foot outside the prison estate. They face a race
against time to access statutory and non-statutory services—to
meet their probation officer; visit a pharmacy or a GP; sort out
their accommodation—all on a Friday, with services closing early,
and with some being a distance away or even impossible to reach
by public transport. Many of them therefore end up homeless, with
no hope of accessing services until Monday morning at the
earliest. So they have nowhere to stay, they have little support
and the world is on their shoulders. Is it any surprise that up
to two thirds of people released without access to accommodation
reoffend within a year.
That race against the clock is maddening. With a third of all
releases taking place on a Friday, this is a numbers game, and
the numbers are very high indeed: reoffending costs the taxpayer
£18 billion a year; and 80% of crime is committed by reoffenders.
If we support people as they come out of prison, we can play a
key role in reducing the significant societal and individual
costs of reoffending, leading to fewer victims of crime and fewer
communities dealing with its impact. This Bill is an important
step towards doing that. By making a simple change, by varying
the date of release for vulnerable people by up to 48 hours, we
can relieve that time pressure and give people the opportunity to
make a fresh start. This small but significant change would build
on existing Government funding and support for people coming out
of prison, including the funding of temporary accommodation for
prison leavers at risk of homelessness. We need to end the
practice of Friday releases for the most vulnerable, so that they
have the vital extra hours and days they need to get support in
place before the weekend arrives. This move is supported by
charities, the third sector, those working in prisons, the
probation service and the Local Government Association, and by
former offenders who have been through the system. If the House
will indulge me, I will pepper this speech with examples from a
few of them.
Last month, I was fortunate enough to visit Wormwood Scrubs in
London, to see Governor Frost and her team. It was a fascinating
and eye-opening visit, and I am grateful for the time she and her
team, and the brilliant third sector organisations, such as
StandOut, afforded to accommodate me and answer some of my banal
questions. Entering a prison, certainly one such as Wormwood
Scrubs, feels very final indeed. You walk through a set of
remarkable Victorian buildings and the first thing you notice is
how solid the place is. There are big, thick walls, and heavy,
metal doors. Everything is contained and segregated by keys. Each
door is opened ahead of you and closes behind you, with a click.
Your choices are limited to the space you have access to. The
outside world, even though you can see it above and through the
windows, feels maddeningly far away. As Governor Frost explained
to me, when you leave a prison like the Scrubs, setting foot
outside the estate for the first time, you face the
“first independent choice you can make in a while.”
If someone is released on a Friday, they have precious little
time to make those choices and if they choose poorly, they may
well find themselves back in prison. Some would rather see their
family than comply with appointments, for some their addiction
takes priority and others simply do not have time to make their
appointments, with no chance of getting from point A to point B
in the remaining hours of the day. When someone resides in
Wormwood Scrubs at His Majesty’s pleasure, is released at 3pm on
Friday and then has to see their parole officer in Cambridge that
same day, what chance do they realistically have of making that
appointment before 5 pm?
I have spoken to prison leavers who were released from custody on
a Friday. Some were lucky and managed to get support, but the
majority were left facing severe issues with access to key
resettlement services. Some ended up on the streets over the
weekend while waiting for housing services to reopen on the
Monday. Even worse, some people I have spoken to were greeted at
the prison gates by the smiling face of their drug dealer.
Criminal gangs know just how hard it can be for people to work
through their release checklist, meet their parole officer, sort
their housing, go to the pharmacy and so on, so they offer a
handout—one that comes at a very steep cost. So the
merry-go-round continues: the person is recalled to prison, and
it all begins again.
I am on the Select Committee on Home Affairs, which is
undertaking an inquiry into drugs. In Middlesbrough earlier this
year, we spoke to addicts and people in recovery about their life
stories. The same issue came up time and again. Their experience
is addiction, prison, release, shoplifting and other petty
crimes, and imprisonment again. At no point does the process help
them, their family or those who work in criminal justice. Nor
does it help society. In my constituency, I have spoken to
Cumbria police and the amazing Well Communities and have seen
these issues time and again.
The nature of unstable releases means further addiction and ripe
pickings for drugs gangs involved in county lines —the exact
opposite of the outcome from imprisonment and rehabilitation that
we might hope for. The chair of the Local Government
Association’s safer and stronger communities board, Councillor
Caliskan, says:
“With staff limitations at the weekend across a range of
services, delays in accessing accommodation and a lack of early
intervention from support services, vulnerable prison-leavers are
at considerable risk of reoffending. In bringing release dates
forward, this will ensure prison-leavers have enough time to
access the right help and support to prevent them heading back
towards previous criminal activities.”
I could not agree more.
If we want safer streets, we have to start by making access
easier to vital services that reduce offending. If people do not
have the support structure, including housing and healthcare,
that they need in place on release, we simply risk depositing
vulnerable people back in the hands of those who encourage harm
over good. When I visited Wormwood Scrubs, the governor and her
amazing team made that point again and again.
If the House will indulge me, I will read the testimony of
Stanley, which was supplied by the fantastic charity Nacro. These
are Stanley’s words:
“The biggest problem is not having a roof over your head. So many
people come straight out of prison with nowhere to live and go
straight on the streets. They have nowhere to go, nothing to do
and end up doing something stupid just to go back inside.
When you come out, there’s nothing. No phone, no money, no ID,
and if you don’t have someone helping you—you’re alone.
Me—I’d lost weight in prison. My jeans don’t fit and I don’t have
a belt. It was freezing and I had no jumper. Yet I couldn’t get
my advance payment because I didn’t have any ID. They told me to
come to the job centre to sort it out on the Monday, but what am
I going to do over the weekend? And I’m supposed to start work on
Monday, and that’s not a good look, making excuses on your first
day. We’re being set up to fail. 99% will go back to prison
because they have no choice.
I came out of prison homeless. They’ve known I’d be released
homeless for months. Yet, released on a Friday, it’s getting late
in the afternoon, and I still have nowhere to go. And the housing
officer has now gone for the weekend. No wonder people
reoffend.
I’ve got an appointment with substance misuse services, but they
can’t see me until Monday. But I’m supposed to start my job on
Monday. And I can’t get an advance payment for UC because I don’t
have any ID. They told me to come and see them on Monday instead.
So now I’m faced with the weekend, with just the discharge grant
to my name. I need to buy myself some winter clothes—it’s
freezing—and I need to eat.
I’ve got hospital appointments. I take 6 different types of
pills. I’m starting a job on Monday and can’t go to the job
centre on my first day of work. This is what people have to deal
with all the time.”
This is a comment from the Nacro resettlement worker who met
Stanley:
“The holding cell on a Friday is rammed as such a high proportion
of people in prison are released in Friday. It’s made worse by
those whose release dates were set for the weekend, and are being
released on a Friday instead. The pressure on the prisons and
resettlement services is incredible. Yet, so many are being
released without any support. Nothing. They don’t know who their
probation officer is. Where they need to go. What they need to
do. And on a Friday, it’s a race against the clock before
services close.
“Unfortunately, for those without housing, the only option on a
Friday is emergency accommodation if that is available. And then
that person will have to through the whole process again on the
Monday, all the while trying to get to a whole range of other
appointments. And UC throws up another obstacle. Anyone who has
been in and out of prison and has claimed an advancement payment
after a previous release, is no longer eligible for another
advance payment. Released on a Friday with just the discharge
grant, those impacted are faced with a long weekend with just £76
pounds to their name.”
For many offenders, the day of release from custody is a
realisation of a long-awaited goal: a chance to turn their backs
on crime for good. But the reality for those released on Friday
can be fraught with practical challenges to surmount. Those who
need access to multiple support services before they close for
the day, including local authority housing and mental health
services, can face a race against the clock. Many services close
early and are then shut over the weekend. Approximately a third
of all releases fall on a Friday, so those services are under
considerable additional pressure.
(Clwyd South) (Con)
I thank my hon. Friend for his excellent speech. In the light of
all his research and discussions to prepare his private Member’s
Bill, why does he think these principles have not been adhered to
before? The points he is making are so clear and obvious, so why,
given all the attendant problems that come from Friday releases,
is there a particular emphasis on them?
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd South for his
comments—I did well there; I do not usually get the
constituencies right. The honest answer is that I do not know.
Certainly, in the data that was brought out during covid
specifically, we saw the impact of that. StandOut and a number of
other good charities have raised this issue since then, and
Nacro—the charity that supplied some of the case studies I have
been using—has done some really effective campaigning on it. Like
many of the things we see in this place and in our daily jobs
representing our constituents, we often need to make maddeningly
small changes to systems all over the place to improve people’s
lot. This is one of those changes, and for that reason, I hope we
can get it through.
(Southend West) (Con)
As a barrister myself, I am aware, as other Members may be, that
a sentence is calculated in days from the date on which it is
given. If the date of release happens to fall on a Saturday or
Sunday, it is then brought back to the Friday, which explains why
Friday has ended up being the most popular day in the week. Does
my hon. Friend agree that he is seeking to correct an unintended
consequence and right an obvious wrong?
My hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. This is a factor of
people’s releases falling on weekends or bank holidays and
compressing almost a third of releases to Fridays. That is a real
problem, as I have outlined.
As I have said, the reoffending rate for adults released on a
Friday is higher than for any other day of the week. Those
without stable accommodation on release are almost two thirds
more likely to reoffend. Let us take the example of Simon—I am
not referring to myself here. Simon was released from a London
prison in April 2021. He has had a history of poor mental health
and alcohol dependency. Owing to his complex needs, he met the
threshold for priority housing. On the Friday when he was
released, he received a phone call at 3 pm saying that no
accommodation could be provided, despite the fact that his
resettlement worker repeatedly chased the local authority housing
department. It was agreed that Simon would travel to stay with
his brother in Ipswich, but he did not make the journey. Simon’s
resettlement worker rang several times that Friday evening, and
it sounded as if Simon was with people, drinking on the streets.
The resettlement worker was later advised that Simon had been
recalled to prison shortly afterwards.
Then there is the example of Patrick, who was released from a
two-year sentence in prison. He had an ankle injury and was
supplied with crutches upon his release, which limited his
mobility and therefore his ability to navigate multiple
appointments across the area he was in. Although he was able to
access his temporary accommodation that day, he was unable to
address his other support needs on the day of release, such as
his substance misuse issue. As a result, he had to wait until the
following Monday to access support, which put him at significant
further risk of reoffending. Patrick did not engage with services
the following week and was recalled to prison shortly afterwards
for failing to attend probation appointments.
By removing these barriers that a Friday release can create, we
can ensure that custody leavers have a better chance to access
the support they need to reintegrate into the community, so that
the victims and the public are protected. As my hon. Friend the
Member for Southend West () said, the law currently
mandates that offenders due to be released on a Saturday, Sunday
or public holiday must be released on the preceding Friday,
providing it is a working day. While that avoids releases on days
when services are completely closed, the result is a bunching of
releases on a Friday, with almost double the number on any other
day of the week.
The Bill seeks to amend the law to provide the Secretary of State
for Justice with a discretionary power to bring forward the
release date of an offender by up to two eligible working days
where that release date falls on a Friday or the day before a
bank holiday. Such a power will promote law-abiding reintegration
into society by ensuring that those leaving custody can access
the support services they need upon release.
In practice, this power will be delegated to the prison governor
or an equivalent official, with the provision targeted at those
most at risk of reoffending. To be clear, we are not talking
about dangerous or high-risk offenders, and there will be strict
security screening of eligible prisoners. The Bill is aimed at
helping vulnerable individuals with complex needs who may need
additional support to help them make the transition back to life
outside prison.
There is a fleeting window of opportunity for people on release
from prison, and we simply must not allow those who are serious
about making a positive and meaningful change in their lives to
fall by the wayside. We should not be setting people up to fail.
This is not about softening sentencing; it is about making sure
that the right support is in place at the right time to prevent
them from immediately falling through the cracks.
Evidence suggests that a Friday release day has a
disproportionate impact on those with complex needs, those who
have greater distances to travel upon release or those with
substance or mental health needs, who face an increased risk of
homelessness. Ministry of Justice research has shown that the
release date can make a 5% difference in the likelihood of
reoffending, with 35% of those freed on a Monday reconvicted
within a year, compared with 40% on a Friday. Let us not forget
that each of the individuals in that 5% represents a further
unnecessary strain on the already stretched capacity of the
prisons estate. More crime means more victims, and each of these
instances of reoffending represents lost opportunities for reform
after people have served their time and should be able to
demonstrate their ability to rejoin and fully contribute to
society.
Here is another example from Katie, a reducing reoffending
officer from Nacro:
“In the past I have worked with many offenders who have been
released on a Friday. Essex is a big area that includes 14 local
authorities. HMP Chelmsford is a local Cat B resettlement prison,
we have many prisoners that are in and out of custody on a
regular basis.
Recently I worked with a man that has been in HMP Chelmsford
approximately 7 times since I started the job in April 2019. This
time he was released on a Friday. He has addiction issues and had
been homeless for several years. Due to short prison sentences,
we have been unable to do any meaningful work with him. My client
had a probation appointment at 2pm in Colchester, a scripting
appointment for his methadone at 3pm and a housing assessment
that had to be completed over the phone at 2.30pm. At some point
he also needed to make his Universal Credit claim, again over the
phone due to Covid. He was released with his mobile phone that he
had when he was brought into custody. No charge and no
credit.
Luckily he made his probation appointment, which took over an
hour as he had a new probation officer, that he had not met
before. He missed both his scripting appointment and his housing
assessment. Most probation officers are mindful of other
appointments on day of release, and will offer some leeway if
they are aware of conflicting appointments, but this involves our
service users speaking out, and some aren’t too good at making
their voices heard, especially when they are fearful of upsetting
their probation officer and being recalled.
Friday releases often require our clients to prioritise their
appointments and what is important to them. Unfortunately they
don’t always prioritise the right thing. Some would rather see
their family than comply with appointments, for some their
addiction takes priority.”
For under-18s, a Friday release may mean a child going for two or
even three days without meaningful contact with support services
when they are at their most vulnerable. That is why the Bill
applies to both adults and children sentenced to detention and
will ensure the same provisions exist across the youth estate.
This overdue change will bring consistency across the youth
estate and, in respect of secure children’s homes, correct a
long-standing omission. It is worth remembering that 15% of
under-18s are imprisoned more than 100 miles from their homes,
with 41% more than 50 miles away. It goes without saying that
this poses an additional, significant challenge for some of the
most at risk who leave detention.
I recognise that the Government are doing fantastic work to
reduce reoffending and protect the public—work that will benefit
all custody leavers. Several new roles, including housing
specialists, prison employment leads, banking leads and
neurodiversity support managers—that’s a mouthful—are being
implemented, which will further benefit individuals to prepare
for release by ensuring they have a roof over their head,
meaningful employment or education in place and access to
essentials such as a bank account or identification.
Picking up on my hon. Friend’s point, I am pleased to hear that
the Government have introduced a number of key measures to reduce
reoffending. From his research, the conversations he has had and
his position on the Home Affairs Committee, does he feel that the
range of services on offer to people immediately after they come
out of prison are in themselves correct and of a good standard?
Is the issue we are debating today therefore the actual access to
those services on a Friday, or is he concerned that more could be
done to improve the services for those coming out of prison?
Once again, I thank my hon. Friend for a very thoughtful
intervention. He tempts me to go far beyond the bounds of this
Bill. My view is that there are multiple challenges here. Just as
people are infinitely complex and different, the services that
exist in local authorities and on the prison estate around the
country vary significantly. They could all be resourced more and
better. That is a challenge that, sadly, I cannot quite meet in
this Bill, but it is one we need to address. The key point that
has come through my research is access to accommodation. If we
can stop people being street homeless on release, we can really
make a positive impact on their lives. If someone has the basics
in place when they need them, they are less likely to reoffend,
which means fewer victims of crime and safer communities.
It is worth considering what the wider pressures are on the
system on Fridays. While prisoners are being released, others are
being prepared for court. Later in the day, higher numbers of
people are released due to those court appearances. Already
pressurised housing services, offender managers, GPs and
pharmacies face a surge in the closing hours of the closing day
of the week, but all of this is avoidable.
By supporting this Bill, the House has the opportunity to provide
offenders with vital extra time to meet their probation or
supervising officer and access healthcare and other services
ahead of the weekend, helping to cut crime and, ultimately,
making our streets safer. The Bill will help to safeguard the
public by taking away a large part of the driver that leads to
reoffending, driven by these cliff-edge releases. I sincerely
hope the House will agree that by making the simple change
proposed by the Bill—varying the date of release for vulnerable
people by up to 48 hours—we can relieve that time pressure, take
away that cliff edge and give people the best opportunity to make
a fresh start.
I will draw to a close with a quote from my good friend John
Bird, the founder of The Big Issue, who was kind enough earlier
this year to take the time to come to Barrow and pay a visit to
The Well Communities, which is a fantastic local charity that
faces the sharp end of many of these issues. said:
“I know from when I was homeless the deep and interconnecting
link between prison and the streets. We need to break that link
to have any hope of stopping this endless cycle of releasing
people homeless and seeing them go back into prison. Ending
Friday releases, with the linked increased risk of homelessness,
is one positive move towards that.”
I find that my life is always easier when I listen to John, so I
suggest it is a worthwhile thing for other Members to do. It
seems to me that if we are serious about justice, about helping
people to rebuild stable and rewarding lives, about relieving
prison capacity, about improving outcomes and about reducing
reoffending, passing the Bill is an important step in the right
direction.
12.40pm
(West Bromwich West)
(Con)
It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow
and Furness (), who gave an absolutely
fantastic justification for the Bill. He was so articulate and
measured in the way he put forward his argument that it makes it
nigh on impossible not to support the Bill, given his efforts. I
pay tribute to him for his work in this area, and for his work on
the Home Affairs Committee. I know he has been a doughty voice on
this issue for a considerable amount of time, and today we have
seen the culmination of a considerable amount of work by him.
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness
for bringing the Bill forward, and he really hit the nail on the
head when he talked about what it is. It is a technical and quite
minor change to the existing legislation, and it does not require
significant spend from the Treasury. Having reviewed it, I do not
think the Bill requires a money resolution at all, so it seems a
very straightforward piece of legislation, but it will have a
considerable impact, which, ultimately, is what this is
about.
Although the Bill might be a somewhat technical change, as we
say, to existing legislation, it will have an absolutely profound
impact on the broader society, on our communities, on the people
we are here to serve, and on those who perhaps want a second
chance more than anything else. From that perspective, it makes
absolute sense for the Bill to pass its Second Reading. As
Members can probably tell from my comments, I will support the
Bill wholeheartedly as it passes its stages in this place, but I
will talk a bit more about its impacts.
I, too, met representatives of Nacro last year and had a really
interesting discussion about the impact of Friday releases,
particularly on youth offenders. My hon. Friend the Member for
Barrow and Furness touched on the issue in his comments, and I
wish to bring it to the forefront of the debate. I cannot compute
what that impact feels like for the 15% of incarcerated or
imprisoned children who are held 100 miles away from where they
live. More often than not, they find themselves in that situation
because of other underlying factors in their life. They are often
a young person with real vulnerabilities, who has effectively
been left to society. Unfortunately, as a result, they have found
themselves in horrendous situations that have ultimately led them
to break the law and end up in custody. I cannot compute how much
the longer-term impacts on a child are compounded by this
situation. Some Members will have children of a similar age—I am
not a parent, but imagine having a child who is 100 miles away
from home, who has been through the system for two or three
years, or even longer, on their own. Let us not brush this under
the carpet: it is a tough environment for someone to come out of
and effectively feel like they are on their own. More often than
not, the young people who are going through the system—my hon.
Friend touched on it, but I will tweak that a bit—are not being
met at the gate by a familiar person with a loving smile ready to
take them somewhere. They are on their own, or they are having to
go back through the system.
That leads me to a broader question: what are we really trying to
achieve in our criminal justice system? Within the confines of
the Bill—I am not going to opine philosophically on that, Mr
Deputy Speaker—one point springs to mind that could address what
opponents of the Bill might say, although I cannot see that there
would be many, if any, given how straightforward and practical it
is. There is a balance between, on the one hand, the perception
that that individual has served their time and, on the other
hand, having a system that practically works.
Effectively, we are talking about tweaking things by a matter of
days to ensure that we do not just throw someone out into the
world without a support mechanism. If we truly want to see the
readmission into society of people who know that they have broken
the law but who have gone through our prison system as a result,
served their punishment and done their time, and if we want them
to become proactive members of society, surely we have to give
them a chance on day one to start in the right way. That is
common sense.
If they need access to a probation officer, that means making
sure that they can access one. They might also need an advance
payment so that they can get new clothes. My hon. Friend gave a
vivid example that highlighted the problem of an individual whose
clothes no longer fitted them when they came out, and it was cold
and they needed to figure out where they were going to go and
what they were going to do.
More often than not, when we are debating in the comfort of this
Chamber, things can become quite abstract and we forget that we
are talking about human beings and people’s lives. We have to
remember that these people often want to reintegrate into
society, but they need practical support to do that. Many of them
are not asking for us to sort them out. They want to contribute,
to go to work, to pay it back and to get on with their lives, but
if we have a ridiculous situation where they are effectively
thrown out on the street at 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon and
told, “Right, get on with it,” how on earth can we realistically
expect them to have a chance? What my hon. Friend is trying to
achieve with his Bill, therefore, is at the core of what all hon.
Members believe: let us at least give someone a decent chance to
have a go and an opportunity to make a start. Again, that is
common sense.
I will touch on the practicalities in prisons, particularly on a
Friday. My hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (), who practised as a
distinguished barrister for many years, knows the intricate
nature of the system full well, as will many other hon. Members.
The administrative pressures in prisons on Fridays are acute.
Often, there are people being prepared to go to court. If there
are people who have hearings in front of judges, either the
following week or sometimes over the weekend, they would be held
there in preparation for those hearings.
On top of that, the situation is compounded by the pressure of
significant numbers of people being processed for release on the
same day. What we have effectively in that process, therefore, is
almost like a pressure cooker. It builds up and up, and there is
no way realistically to properly track how things are being
monitored and managed. Staff have to effectively get people out
because there needs to be turnover in the system. That is not to
be seen as a criticism in any way, shape or form of the
hard-working people in our prison system—they have to work with
the systems and processes they have—but if we can alleviate the
pressure on them with the small minor change that this
legislation seeks to achieve, it makes perfect sense to do that.
We know that, when people are under that amount of pressure, it
is impossible to know exactly who is where, who is collecting who
and how that impacts on so and so and to link with those
agencies. The volume and pressure they are dealing with are so
impacted and compounded, it is just not possible.
The other point I want to make on support relates to older
offenders. When someone is coming out of prison after a
significant amount of time, it is into unfamiliar surroundings
and a system, a world and, in many respects, probably a society
that have totally changed. That impacts not just on the
practicalities of getting from A to B, but on them personally and
their mental health. It might sound straightforward to say to
someone who has perhaps come out of prison after 15 or 20 years,
“Begone, get on the train to see your probation officer at 3
o’clock”, but it is not. That is particularly so when we add the
fact that they are being released on a Friday, when these support
services are not there, so any hope that this person may be able
to get some degree of support is reduced—not eliminated, but
reduced—and that again adds to the pressures.
From the perspective of ensuring reintegration, which is the
overarching angle of the point I am trying to make, it is so
important that we enable people to at least have a chance to
access our support services and meet their own obligations, too,
particularly the need to meet a probation officer or support
officer, or any other condition attached to their release. If
there are conditions attached to release, by releasing
individuals on a Friday, we are not even giving them a chance to
meet those conditions in the first place. From that perspective,
the idea of fair play—as in, this person has done their part, so
the state needs to do its part, too—is just not there in the
current system, and that is another thing that the Bill seeks to
address.
The other key perspective from an administrative point of view is
how this power is delegated. In the legislation, that power would
sit with the Secretary of State and would then flow through.
Practically, it is likely that governors of prisons and directors
of private prisons would be the ones exercising the power on a
day-to-day basis, and that is absolutely right, because within
the broader prison system and organisation, it is exactly those
people who know the prisons. It comes back to my earlier point,
which is that we are dealing ultimately with human beings. It is
vital, therefore, that we leverage the existing relationships
that prisons have with their prisoners, utilising the knowledge
and skills of those who know them best to ensure that we can
tailor release dates that work for them, clearly in line with the
sentences handed down.
Having the practical function of this power executed and managed
by prison governors, with the prison staff underneath them
feeding into that process, is absolutely right. It will enable us
to ensure that the process is dealt with through the people with
the best knowledge to manage it and ensure that individuals are
identified in the right way. From that perspective of the Bill,
it is absolutely right that we handle this in that way.
Of course, the overarching theme of my contribution is about
giving people a fair go once they have left prison, and to me
that is the core of the Bill. My hon. Friend the Member for
Barrow and Furness touched on substance misuse as a real driver
of reoffending and made the vivid point about people often being
met at the prison gate, not by someone they know or a family
member, but by their drug dealer.
The broader point about linking with support services—Nacro does
an amazing job there, and I really commend its work—is a vital
thread of this legislation. By enabling discretion on the timings
of release, it allows us not only to mitigate exactly what my
hon. Friend talked about, but to stand up the services to tackle
the problem of substance abuse. I know from my own experience in
my communities in West Bromwich West that that has been a real
driver of crime and offending rates, particularly short-term
offending, which is acutely impacted, in the research I have
seen, by the issues the Bill seeks to tackle.
The Bill will enable us to ensure that, from a pragmatic point of
view, we are eliminating—or at least making our best efforts to
eliminate—the scenario of someone being met by their drug dealer
at the gate, by enabling the discretion for their release to be
timed in the right way. It at least gives that person a chance.
It may sound as though I have portrayed a land of milk and honey
here, so let me be clear: this legislation would not eliminate
reoffending completely. There is always a degree of personal
responsibility. It will also not entirely eliminate Friday
release, because there may be good reasons why a prison governor
allows it, or a sentence expires on that day and it works out in
practical terms.
To be abundantly clear, I am aware that a technical change will
not suddenly solve all the problems of reoffending, but to me,
this is a vital but understated part of the broader machinery for
dealing with them. I have just said it will not eliminate
reoffending; there is a degree of personal responsibility and
broader societal issues, which are outside the scope of the Bill,
but which we must continue to work on. However, at least this
Bill is an opportunity to give people a fair go and eliminate a
technical construction that has exacerbated those issues.
To sum up, I think this Bill is pragmatic in what it seeks to do.
It seeks to address an issue that may be understated, but none
the less has an acute impact on prisoners affected by Friday
releases. It enables people to access vital services, to start
the road to reintegration and to get the support they need—or at
least it provides the opportunity for that, and that is so
important.
As I said, the Bill will not solve the broader issues with
reoffending rates, but it is a part of that patchwork that we
need to keep developing. It is part of the broader conversation
we need to have. It is absolutely right that the mechanics of the
Bill allow its application to be pragmatic, which I very much
support. The people who know prisoners best are those who work
with them during their time in prison.
At the heart of the Bill is giving a fair chance to people who
want to turn their life around, which is something we can all
wholeheartedly get behind.
1.00pm
(Dewsbury) (Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich West
() on his articulate speech. He
did not use notes, which I will try to replicate.
I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and
Furness () on introducing the Bill.
Before I came here on the train, I looked at the Bills on the
Order Paper, and it occurred to me that this Bill might seem
simple, but who knew that releasing prisoners on a Friday has the
unintended consequence—my hon. Friend the Member for Southend
West () mentioned unintended
consequences—of a greater chance of reoffending? That surprised
me.
I fully support the Bill, and I hope the Government do, too. The
comments of my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich West
resonated with me on a personal level. I am not an offender, but
I grew up in quite a deprived area of Batley and Dewsbury. I had
a friend from an early age who, as a late teenager, committed
quite a serious crime that, unfortunately, led to his
imprisonment. We went our separate ways. He spent quite a number
of years in prison. My hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich
West spoke about giving people a second chance, and prison gave
this friend a second chance. He turned his life around, but it
astonishes me that, had he been released on a Friday, it might
not have happened. That is an important point about this
Bill.
This friend is now a member of the same gym as me, The Muscle Pit
in Dewsbury—“Muscle Pit” is obviously a contradiction in terms as
far as I am concerned. My hon. Friends the Members for Milton
Keynes North () and for West Bromwich West
are both gym members.
Ultimately, we need to give offenders every chance we can. It is
a problem if releasing them on a certain day of the week does not
help. That problem has been well addressed today, for which I pay
tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness.
There are statistics on reoffending, and my hon. Friend the
Member for West Bromwich West alluded to the fact that not
everyone will stop reoffending if we release them on a Monday
instead of a Friday, but we should do everything we can to help
the statistics. There are resources available to support people
released from prison in reducing their risk of reoffending.
My hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness has been working
with Switchback, an award-winning resettlement charity in London,
and it has highlighted the Ministry of Justice data showing that
more than 50,000 people are released from prison each year, and
of those 40% are reconvicted. That is 20,000 people, which is far
too many. Just one in 10 gains work, which is 5,000. What happens
to the other 25,000? Reoffending costs society and the taxpayer
an estimated £18 billion a year. Switchback found that, in
London, two in three were released homeless. One in four had no
ID, bank account or phone, so they were out of the system.
(Milton Keynes North)
(Con)
Is my hon. Friend aware that, in supporting the Bill, has commented that the link
between prison and homelessness is critical and that the Bill is
a step towards breaking that link?
I was not aware of those specific comments, but obviously we do
not want people sleeping on the streets or rough sleeping. I pay
tribute to Kirklees Council and its rough sleeping team. If the
Bill alleviated the problem, that would be a benefit, so it
should be brought forward. I thank my hon. Friend for that.
Nacro, which has campaigned on this matter since 2018, has also
called for an end to Friday releases. It suggests that more than
a third of prison leavers are released on a Friday, which piles
pressure on to offender managers, responsible officers, local
housing authorities, accommodation providers, Jobcentre Plus
officers and other community services. I suggest that the impact
is wider than just the public sector and those offering such
services.
I would like to name-check a number of charities that also want
to help offenders. The Blast Foundation equips offenders,
ex-offenders and their families to prepare for reintegration into
lawful society through mentoring and training. Choices is a
counselling service for those facing unplanned pregnancy and
child separation. Moving on from what was said by my hon. Friend,
HTB shelter and night shelters provide a safe place for rough
sleepers in London. Mind provides advice and support to empower
anyone experiencing mental health problems. One in Four supports
people who have experienced child sexual abuse and trauma, and
Prison Fellowship works through its volunteer members to support
prisoners in a number of ways. Prisoners and offenders need
access to those services as they come back into society. If they
cannot have that on a weekend, of course they are more likely to
be stood at the prison gates and tempted by the drug dealers and
people who want them not to rehabilitate themselves—obviously,
from a financial point of view, that would not help them.
A final organisation that I have much admiration for when it
comes to prisoners and rehabilitation is Timpson, which does dry
cleaning. It does my dry cleaning, although my suit probably
needs to go back there next week—you will be pleased to know that
I will bring in another suit next week, Mr Deputy Speaker.
Timpson does great work with offenders—it has been known to meet
offenders at the gates. It may not do that on a Friday—obviously
it works on a six-days-a-week basis—but it is there to help stop
reoffending.
My hon. Friend is making a characteristically articulate speech,
so I want to say well done for that; it is fantastic. He has
mentioned a number of charities and third-party organisations.
Does he agree that one of the good things about the Bill and the
practical use of its discretion is that, as I touched on in my
contribution, it enables a bit of forward planning? If we could
enable further engagement with those organisations, we could plan
a proper release strategy for prisoners, to at least try to
mitigate some of exactly what he is articulating.
Absolutely. These organisations are fully prepared to help people
to reintegrate into society. Finally on Timpson, I have talked to
people who work in its high street shops, and they do great work
in this area. The only thing that they do not train offenders in
is key cutting—for obvious reasons.
We have mentioned that Fridays are busy days in prison, which
often results in delayed release. There is a higher volume of
prison leavers, and those going to court are prioritised over
those due for release, leading to later releases. There is less
time to contact support services, as has been mentioned. That can
lead to homelessness, which has a special impact on women and
young people. Women are held, on average, 63 miles from home, but
many are held 100 miles away or more. Eleven per cent. of
children in custody are held over 100 miles from home, and 35%
are held more than 50 miles away.
Services in the community may offer reduced services on Fridays,
and reduced or no services over the weekend. That means that the
window for prison leavers to obtain support from those services
is incredibly limited on a Friday. Delays can mean that those
people cannot access the support they need. That obviously leads
to an increased risk of reoffending and sets them up to fail. As
my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich West alluded to,
everyone should be given a second chance. We do not want people
to fail and go back into the prison system. The high number of
releases on Fridays puts unnecessary pressure on services,
especially on bank holidays, which we have not mentioned. If
someone has a Friday release and the Monday—or, on certain
special occasions, Tuesday—is a bank holiday, the prisoner is
left to their own devices and at risk. That needs to be taken
into account in this Bill.
In conclusion, we need to support the Bill to help those who
genuinely want to re-engage with society, to enable them to
access the support available and to reduce the risk of
reoffending due to lack of support and, therefore, reduce
pressures on criminal justice services, so that they can
adequately support more people. Finally, I congratulate the hon.
Member for Barrow and Furness on presenting this Bill. He has my
full support.
Mr Deputy Speaker ( )
The shadow Minister has indicated that she would like to speak
next, and I am more than happy to comply with her wishes.
1.12pm
(Bolton South East)
(Lab)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness () on introducing this important
Bill. I thank Nacro for its campaigning work on this issue and
the vital support it provides to prison leavers. As the hon.
Member outlined, the Bill will allow the earlier release, by up
to two days, of people in prison with high resettlement needs who
are due to be released from prison on a Friday or the day before
a bank holiday.
It will be no surprise to the Government that Labour supports the
Bill wholeheartedly, not least because we tried to legislate for
this last year. My hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North
() tabled an amendment to the
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 that would have
provided this much-needed flexibility for Friday releases, but
the Government at the time refused to support it. I am glad that
they have now seen sense and recognise the value in Labour’s
proposals—because let’s us face it, these proposals are common
sense.
As the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness explained, prisoners
released on a Friday face an almost impossible race against the
clock to get all the support that they need in place before the
weekend. In many cases, they are simply unable to access the same
support as those released earlier in the week, because many
crucial resettlement agencies run a reduced service on Fridays
and no service over the weekend.
That means that prison leavers might end up sleeping rough or in
unsuitable housing. They may be left for the weekend, unable to
access important medication and health support, such as in the
case of M, who was released on Friday before a bank holiday
weekend after serving a year in custody. He had an addiction to
heroin but, when released, was not given the prescription charts
from the prison that were needed to determine the dose of
methadone he needed. He was also not given a bridging
prescription. As it was late afternoon on Friday, the GP from the
substance misuse service had left, and M and his resettlement
broker were unable to get his medication. He was vulnerable and
entitled to priority housing, but the local authority did not
deem him to be in priority need because it was a Friday
afternoon. He did not have time to gather the further evidence
that was needed to prove what he had said before the weekend. He
spent the weekend sleeping in a known drug house and ended up
using heroin. As part of his licensed conditions, he was required
to give a blood sample and, lo and behold, he tested positive for
drug use. Had he been released earlier in the week, he would have
accessed the housing and medical support that he needed to help
in his resettlement.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon Central () has noted previously in
Committee, Members of this House will be especially familiar with
this matter. I am sure that many of us have experienced the same
difficulties in getting the necessary support for our
constituents in need last thing on a Friday, just as agencies and
services are closing for the weekend. Indeed, very recently, I
went with a constituent in housing need to my local town hall
just to ensure that they were given the services that they
needed. From my earlier life as a criminal practitioner who both
prosecuted and defended, I can tell Members of the cases that
were heard on a Saturday in the emergency court of people who had
been released from prison and were back in court again because
they had nowhere else to go. It was better to commit a minor
offence, be arrested and be kept in a prison cell where they at
least had a warm bed and three square meals. That was a better
option for them.
We know that around 400 people continue to be released from
prison, every month, directly into homelessness. Only 30% of
people receiving treatment services while in prison are
successfully transferred to the community on release. I hope that
the changes proposed in the Bill will contribute to improving
those worrying numbers. There is a window of opportunity for
people when they are released from prison. That is when they are
keen to move on and rebuild their lives outside prison. We should
be seizing that opportunity by making the transition as easy as
possible to give them the best chance of success and thus
decrease the likelihood of their reoffending as much as
possible.
The Government conceded in the summer that, under the current
system, Friday releases can end up with ex-offenders spending
their first days on the streets with little in the way of
support, increasing the likelihood that they will commit further
crimes, and they committed to legislate when time allows.
However, under this Government, reoffending rates have remained
stubbornly high, and the refusal to legislate for this change
until now, and doing so through a private Member’s Bill, is
evidence of how far this has fallen down the priority list of the
Ministry of Justice.
The chaos and ministerial musical chairs that has been going on
across Government over the past number of years has meant that,
in the intervening months, thousands more prisoners have been
released on Fridays and have been set up to fail. We are glad
that the changes are coming and are pleased to support them, but
it is a shame that the Government took so long to listen and to
act.
On a final note, the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, the
right hon. Member for Croydon South (), who replied to the previous
debate, made what I would call a really gratuitous political
statement about how few Labour Members were present for today’s
debates. The reason for that is that we agreed with the first
Bill debated today and we agree with this Bill. The reason why
there are so many Members on the Conservative Benches is that
they are trying to talk out the last Bill that will be reached
today. I do not think that Members should be making those
comments.
I agree with some of what the hon. Lady has said. However, on the
point about participation, I get what she is saying, but, surely,
if Labour Members were so enthusiastic, they would be here in the
Chamber. The hon. Lady is here because she clearly supports the
Bill. Where are her colleagues?
My colleagues have no objections to these Bills. The reason that
Government Members are taking so long on this issue is that they
are trying to talk out the last Bill listed for today.
rose—
That is it. I will take no further interventions.
I take real exception to what the hon. Lady is saying. I have
seen at first hand the impact of this in my own community, and I
have spoken to a number of charities. [Interruption.] Let me take
the heat out of this. This is a common-sense Bill. We all agree
on that. We have all seen the impact of this. Regardless of the
back and forth—although, Mr Deputy Speaker, my contribution was
not included—let us just agree that it is a great Bill; it makes
sense, so let us just get on and support it. It is as simple as
that. Does she not agree with that?
I agree. Indeed, I started off by saying that we support the
Bill. Not only do we support it today, but we have been
supporting it since last year, when we tabled an amendment on
this.
Mr Deputy Speaker ( )
Has the shadow Minister completed her speech?
indicated assent.
Mr Deputy Speaker
In which case, I call Mr Baynes.
1.20pm
(Clwyd South) (Con)
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to speak
on Second Reading in support of the important Bill brought to the
House by my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (). In making my remarks, I am
very mindful of the fact that HMP Berwyn is in the next-door
constituency to mine, that of my hon. Friend the Member for
Wrexham (). As the neighbouring MP,
who also represents half of Wrexham County Borough Council, let
me say that HMP Berwyn is of great significance and importance to
my constituents as well, not least those who work in the prison.
Last year, I had the honour of going round the prison with some
fellow MPs from north Wales and I saw the excellent way it is
run. It was established relatively recently, so some far-reaching
and innovative ideas have been able to be implemented on how we
lead prisoners back into a rehabilitated life after leaving
prison, which is of course at the core of why we are debating
this issue today.
I would also like to make the point to the hon. Member for Bolton
South East (), who is sitting on the
Opposition Front Bench, that Conservative Members take this issue
seriously, as we did the previous private Member’s Bill. This is
an opportunity for Back Benchers, as opposed to Front Benchers
such as her, to express our concerns and those of our
constituents. I am sure that she would support our having a
vibrant democratic approach to the life of this Parliament and
this Chamber.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness has
articulated so well, Friday releases come with a range of
complications for those who have completed their custodial
sentences. When somebody leaves prison, they should ideally have
the following things in place: somewhere to live, a point he made
particularly eloquently; financial support; access to the basic
essentials; access to healthcare and mental health or substance
misuse services; and support and someone to turn to. In an ideal
world, all those services should be in place. If they are in
place or largely in place, the risk of reoffending will be
substantially reduced. As has been discussed in this debate,
about one in three offenders currently leaves prison on a Friday.
Releasing prisoners on a Friday, as is common, reduces a released
offender’s access to all those basic principles I have outlined,
with those things often delayed until Monday of the following
week. Significantly, adult offenders without stable accommodation
on release from prison are almost 50% more likely to reoffend and
it is clear that access to accommodation is important. Probably,
as my hon Friend said, it is of paramount importance in helping
offenders to access both employment and training opportunities,
which may support their rehabilitation.
Friday releases demonstrably threaten the likelihood of an
offender’s release to stable accommodation and a smooth
transition back into society. Currently, section 23 of the
Criminal Justice Act 1961 provides that detained offenders who
would otherwise be released on weekends, bank holidays or public
holidays are to be released on the preceding day—a Friday or the
day before a bank holiday or public holiday. As my hon. Friend
the Member for Southend West () discovered from her career as
a criminal barrister, there are, to an extent, unintended
consequences involved in this. Offenders would have only the rest
of the day to access services and arrange accommodation, given
that the providers of services and accommodation would probably
be closed on non-working days. They would have to wait until the
next working day, which might be in several days’ time,
especially in the event of a public holiday.
Fridays are often busy days in prisons. On Fridays, as on other
days, prison staff need to prepare outgoing prisoners for court
in the morning, and also need to process the larger numbers of
people being released. Owing to performance indicators, prisons
will prioritise those being prepared for court over those who are
due for release, which can mean that people who are released
later in the day have limited time to present themselves to
service providers before the weekend. Those being released may
also have to travel significant distances to reach the areas in
which they are being resettled, arriving late in the day, which
makes it less likely that they will secure all the support that
they need. That point, too, has already been made eloquently by
other Members. It is particularly relevant to women and young
people, owing to the configuration of the prison estate and the
possible distance from their home area.
Gaining access to timely support on release can therefore be
particularly challenging on a Friday, because of the number of
different services—both wider Government and third sector
services—that will need to be accessed, because of the limited
time available before services close for the weekend, and because
of the additional pressure on support services caused by an
increased number of releases. Approximately a third of releases
fall on a Friday, almost double the number on any other day of
the week, and failure to access vital support on a Friday, or the
day preceding a public holiday, can increase the risk of
reoffending.
Adult offenders released on a Friday from sentences of less than
12 months are known to have had a reoffending rate within two
weeks of release of 14.8%, slightly higher than the average
reoffending rate—13.2%—of those released on other days of the
week. As was mentioned earlier, challenges are more apparent
among older offenders, those released from establishments located
far from their home address, and those with substance misuse or
mental health needs, who face an increased risk of
homelessness.
The data clearly shows that releasing prisoners on a Friday
creates insecurity for them. That may be due to an inability to
access accommodation, or they may have just a few hours in which
to arrange a bed for the night, register with a GP and sign up
for job support to keep them on the straight and narrow before
services shut down for the weekend. My hon. Friend the Member for
Dewsbury () spoke eloquently about the
rehabilitation of offenders, which lies at the heart of our
justice system, at the heart of our debate and at the heart of
the Bill. We support that strongly, and this is one practical way
in which we can help the process.
The Bill will give the Secretary of State a discretionary power
to bring forward the release date of an offender by up to two
eligible working days, when that release date falls on a Friday.
In practice, that power will be delegated to the governor, the
director or appropriate officials in youth establishments—those
who know the prisoners we are talking about—and guidance on
eligibility criteria to target those most in need will be set out
in a policy framework. As my hon. Friend the Member for West
Bromwich West () rightly said, that is a
sensible and pragmatic way of approaching things.
As was mentioned by, in particular, my hon. Friend the Member for
Barrow and Furness, , founder of The Big Issue, has
come out strongly in favour of the Bill. My hon. Friend quoted
his words, so I will not quote them in full now, but I will
repeat the last sentence of my hon. Friend’s quotation:
“Ending Friday releases, with the linked increased risk of
homelessness, is one positive move towards that.”
The Bill has my full support. It provides for changes which—as
will be clear in the data that my hon. Friends and I have
discussed—reduce reoffending and offer those on release more
stable prospects as they reintegrate into public life.
1.29pm
(Gedling) (Con)
I also rise to speak in support of the Bill, and I congratulate
my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness () on bringing it forward and on
his quietly passionate and very persuasive speech outlining the
reasons for it.
Any of us who read The Spectator—and given the Members who are in
the Chamber today, I think everyone here is probably an avid
Spectator reader—will know Rory Sutherland’s “Wiki Man” column.
As an advertising man, he writes a fortnightly column explaining
how small changes in design or behaviour can have far-reaching
implications, and this Bill is a very good example of that.
As my hon. Friend explained, the current legislation, which is
from the 1960s, says that one will be released from prison on a
Friday if the release date is at the weekend or on a bank
holiday. I should say at the outset that I believe in prison. I
believe that people who commit serious offences and also some
minor offences should go to prison. I also hold the view, which I
think is still fashionable, that more people should be in prison
for longer.
Aside from a small group of people, everyone who is in prison
will be released at some point, so the question arises: how
should we bring them back into society? How should we begin to
rehabilitate them? We have heard from the speeches today that
Fridays in prison are pretty much like those in any
workplace—there is a rush to complete things before the weekend,
when things effectively shut down for two days, and tasks need to
be finished.
A third of releases are on a Friday, which is double the number
on any other day. One might be released from prison a very long
way from home, with a little bit of money in one’s pocket, as
support services are winding down or closed. In that context, it
is no surprise that offenders who have been released might end up
in the pub or worse, rather than accessing the services they
need. As we have heard today, adult offenders released on a
Friday from sentences of less than 12 months have a slightly
higher reoffending rate within two weeks of release than those
released on other days. My hon. Friend clearly illustrated the
issues, or more particularly, Stanley, who he referred to in his
speech, articulated the problems that can be encountered.
This Bill will go a long way, particularly when seen in the
context of other measures. For example, I welcome the recent
introduction by the Government of employment advisory boards,
which will bring together local charities, local authorities and
others to help ready ex-prisoners for the workplace. My hon.
Friend the Member for Rushcliffe () and I are sitting in on the
meetings of the board that exists in Nottingham. I have my first
meeting next week, and I look forward to using those meetings to
get feedback from those on the ground about how decisions being
made in this place are actually working, and if they are not
working, why and what can be done to improve them. He has been
mentioned already, but I congratulate James Timpson, chief
executive of the Timpson group, whose brainchild the employment
advisory boards are, and I look forward to seeing those
developed.
This is a measured Bill. The personal circumstances of the
offender will be taken into account, to ensure that public
protection is maintained. By bringing the release date forward by
one or two days, the sentence is not shortened by any meaningful
amount; it is only a matter of days. Those who support prison and
believe in prison can support this measure as a way of ending the
prison process, as the prison population is rehabilitated and
returned into general society. I congratulate my hon. Friend the
Member for Barrow and Furness on bringing forward the Bill, and I
look forward to supporting it and seeing it come on to the
statute book.
1.34pm
(Hastings and Rye)
(Con)
Campaigners have said in support of the Bill that a move to end
Friday prison releases would help to stop freed inmates walking
straight back into the arms of criminal gangs. I welcome the Bill
and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness
() on introducing it.
As many Members have said, former prisoners who are let out of
prison on a Friday face a race against the clock to access
housing, benefits, healthcare and other services before the
weekend, which leaves some of them temporarily homeless and
increases the risk of reoffending. The Bill would give prison
governors discretion to release those most at risk up to 48 hours
earlier to ensure that they can receive assistance. The changes
are expected to result in significantly fewer crimes each year,
meaning fewer victims, less crime and safer streets.
Currently, about one in three prisoners leaves prison on a
Friday. That gives them very little time before everything shuts
for the weekend to find a bed for the night if they are unable to
go back to their home, to register with a GP or to sign up for
job support to keep them on the straight and narrow. When people
come out of prison, they need secure housing first and foremost,
as well as employment. Currently, section 23(3) of the Criminal
Justice Act 1961 provides that detained offenders who would
otherwise be released on weekends or public or bank holidays are
to be released on the preceding day. That gives offenders only
the rest of their day of release to access services and
accommodation.
Failure to access vital support on a Friday, or the day preceding
a public or bank holiday, can raise the risk of reoffending. From
July 2016 to September 2020, adult offenders released on a Friday
from sentences of less than 12 months had a slightly higher
reoffending rate within two weeks of release—14.8% compared with
the 13.2% average reoffending rate of those released on other
days of the week.
Challenges are more apparent for older offenders, those released
from establishments located far from their home address, or those
with substance misuse or mental health needs, who face an
increased risk of homelessness. I welcome the news that, after
careful consideration, the Ministry of Justice is supportive of
the Bill, following the announcement in June that it was
seriously considering introducing changes to curb Friday
releases. As we are all arguing, legislation is urgently
needed.
When prisoners are released, they face a challenging environment
that can actively deter them from becoming productive members of
society. With alarming prevalence, many former prisoners are
re-arrested within a short time of release. Reoffending harms the
families of inmates and society in general. Taxpayers continue to
support a broken system that sets up ex-offenders to fail once
they are released. Former prisoners need housing and work, but it
is more difficult for them to find rewarding employment—or any at
all, in fact—when compared with the general population. It is
also difficult for them to find safe and secure accommodation and
to function in society generally. Significantly, adult offenders
without stable accommodation on release from prison are almost
50% more likely to reoffend. Access to accommodation is important
in helping offenders to access employment and training
opportunities that may support their rehabilitation.
Ex-offenders seem to be punished for their crimes beyond the term
of imprisonment—that is wrong. Whatever we wish to call
it—punishment, rehabilitation redemption, forgiveness or
salvation—when a person has served their punishment, he or she
deserves a second chance, and everyone needs to move on. Former
prisoners face challenges at every level when they come out of
prison, from finding a job to finding that their family
relationships have changed. Sometimes, even their own
expectations are challenging for them to deal with, too.
Family relationships are vital. If ex-offenders can return home,
they are dependent on family members and must often overcome
years of limited contact, potential resentment and a change in
the household dynamic. Many ex-offenders think that they can slip
back in and things will be how they were, but that is not always
the case, and many former inmates find it more difficult than
they expected. It is not always easy for family members either:
they, too, need to readjust and often have to carry the financial
burden of a dependent adult.
Studies have shown that prisoners who maintain consistent contact
and connection with their family during their sentence have a
lower risk of reoffending. Far too many men, and unfortunately
some women, miss out on their children’s formative and critical
years. In prison, unfortunately, there are inevitable obstacles
to maintaining consistent contact with family. That creates
challenges post prison.
To make it easier for former prisoners to get back into the swing
of life, we need to consider the best time for ex-offenders to be
released from prison. That is not on a Friday or before public
holidays, when it can be virtually impossible to access services.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness () says, the Bill
“just gives people that breathing room and ability to plan,
ability to access statutory services, and should also limit the
ability for organised criminal gangs and others to basically pick
up people who have nowhere else to turn at that time.”
Government figures show that one in three offenders leave prison
on a Friday. According to campaigners, 35% of those who are freed
on a Monday are reconvicted within a year, compared with 40% of
those who are freed on a Friday, so it is vital that Friday
releases be looked at again. The Government have acknowledged
that Friday releases
“can end up with ex-offenders spending their first days on the
streets with little in the way of support—increasing the
likelihood they will commit further crimes”,
and have committed to legislation.
I agree with Jo Rogers, former senior manager at Brighton Housing
Trust, a housing association and homeless charity that does
fantastic work in beautiful Hastings and Rye. She said:
“An important aim of the Fulfilling Lives South East project was
to challenge and change systems, and we are delighted that the
government has announced this change to Friday prison releases.
It is the result of a lot of hard work by ourselves and others in
highlighting this issue as an additional barrier for people
trying to access support after being released from prison…This
policy change will make a real difference to vulnerable
ex-offenders for whom the first few days out of prison are
crucial in accessing valuable community support to avoid getting
trapped in a cycle of repeat offending.”
Fulfilling Lives South East was a project based across Brighton
and Hove, Hastings and Eastbourne that aimed to improve the
systems that support people with multiple and complex needs. It
was led by BHT Sussex and its work from 2014 to 2022 was funded
by the National Lottery Community Fund. Its work is not over;
there is still much more to do. I expect that the Government’s
Changing Futures programmes is picking that up: Sussex was one of
15 areas chosen for that Government initiative, after a joint bid
across East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove.
The Bill, which would apply to England and Wales only, would give
the Secretary of State a discretionary power to bring forward the
release date of an offender by up to two eligible working days
where that release date falls on a Friday. That is really
important. The Bill would also help to promote positive
reintegration into society by ensuring that those who leave
custody access the support services that they need on release.
The Bill has much merit, and it has my support.
1.44pm
(Southend West) (Con)
It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship for the second
time today, Mr Deputy Speaker. I congratulate my hon. Friend the
Member for Barrow and Furness () on his Bill; he spoke with
great compassion, wisdom, experience and authority. It would be
remiss of me not to mention the incredible work of my hon. Friend
the Member for Workington () to bring the Bill into the
good position that it is in today.
An awful lot has already been said about the Bill. It is
fundamentally about correcting an unintended consequence of the
Criminal Justice Act 1961, whereby it was laid down that, when a
sentence is passed, the release date is the date where it falls
unless that is the weekend, in which case the date would be
brought back to the Friday. That is why more than a third of
release dates end up being on a Friday. As has already been
explained, if we continue the practice of releasing prisoners on
a Friday, we are often condemning them to go back into exactly
the same situation that they had been in and that resulted in
them offending and going into prison in the first place.
The Bill goes to the heart of what it means to be a compassionate
Conservative. Those of us who had the delight of studying law at
any time in our academic education know that there are four
aspects to sentencing. Only one of those is about rehabilitation,
but in many ways, that is the most transformative and that is the
one that we have been talking about. It is a shame that, despite
much being said by Opposition Members about Government Members
not being compassionate, the Opposition Benches are not full of
people supporting this compassionate measure. I recommend it
wholly and it has my full support.
1.46pm
(Loughborough) (Con)
I refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’
Financial Interests. I am also a borough councillor, as I was in
2010 and 2011 when I chaired a series of panels on reducing
reoffending. We identified, with the help of the police and
others, that leaving prison on a Friday is an absolutely terrible
idea, and hopefully we will be able to deal with that today. I am
thrilled to speak to the Bill, which I thoroughly support, and I
thank my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness () for bringing it forward.
I absolutely believe that criminals should serve their sentence
and be seen to serve their sentence, but they must also be given
every opportunity to make a change once they are released from
prison, and the Bill is a good way to do that. The cost of
reoffending is £18.1 billion, so if it makes the slightest change
to that, it would be great news. It would be even better news,
however, for those who no longer reoffended.
I particularly thank HMP Leicester, which I visited and observed
a few months ago. Given the work that staff do to try to make
sure that people do not reoffend, it must be disheartening to see
people leave on a Friday knowing that it creates a problem and
that they are likely to come back. I also thank Leicestershire
police, who are superb, and a number of charities in my area that
support ex-offenders in particular.
1.48pm
(Milton Keynes North)
(Con)
It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for
Loughborough () and to speak on this hugely
important legislation. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member
for Barrow and Furness () on bringing the Bill forward.
There is so much in there, particularly with regard to its impact
on reducing reoffending, but I will talk specifically about the
impact on reducing homelessness, which is close to my heart.
Leaving prison is a hugely significant transition for offenders.
Once they are out, it takes them a long time to adapt, so
starting on the right foot is important. It is therefore vital to
get people into stable accommodation. In 2022, two in three of
those released from prison were released homeless. Those who are
released and are immediately homeless are more likely to
reoffend, so that cycle continues.
I welcome the Government’s new accommodation service, which is
being rolled out across England and Wales and will support
thousands of prison leavers at that crucial time of their life
and give them the foundation to work on to rebuild themselves. It
is critical that we end the cycle of leaving prison and becoming
homeless. On that note, I support the Bill.
1.49pm
(Leigh) (Con)
I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness
() for bringing forward this
tremendously important legislation. Speaking as someone who has
served for 13 years as a member of my local authority, I
understand exactly the points made by my hon. Friend the Member
for Loughborough (). It can be incredibly difficult
to access services on a Friday in a timely manner. Even when
someone can access them, it can be extremely difficult to get a
resolution when raising complex issues, as has been mentioned by
my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (). I understand that some will
want to get to their feet on other matters, so, with that, I will
bring my comments to a close. I absolutely commend the excellent
work my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness has been
doing on this matter.
1.50pm
The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice ()
I start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow
and Furness () on bringing forward this
important Bill. It is a simple change, but the measure he has
brought before the House today will, through its passage through
this place, be a landmark reform. He spoke powerfully and made a
very effective case by talking of real people and their case
studies. He has been so effective that I have scored through
large parts of my speech, in which I intended to illustrate a
number of those points, so I thank him doubly. I also acknowledge
and thank our hon. Friend the Member for Workington () for the role that he has
played in bringing the Bill to this place.
The Bill will ensure that those most at risk of reoffending will
no longer need to be released on a Friday, or the day before a
bank holiday. It will do so by providing the Secretary of State
for Justice—in practice, the governor or director of a prison, or
the appropriate equivalent officer in a youth establishment—with
a discretionary power to bring forward the release date by up to
two eligible working days. That will mean that certain offenders
will no longer face the race against the clock that my hon.
Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness so evocatively set out
to find accommodation and access to medication and financial
support before those services close for the weekend. That, of
course, can be particularly problematic for those with multiple
complex needs, such as drug dependency and mental health issues.
He described it as a fleeting window of opportunity. I think that
sets out the issue very well.
By removing the barriers that a Friday release can create, we can
maintain public protection by ensuring custody leavers have a
better chance to access the support they need to reintegrate and
turn their backs on a life of crime. Ultimately, it will result
in fewer victims and less crime. The Bill applies to both adults
and children sentenced to detention. Despite the various
safeguards and legal duties that exist for children leaving
custody, it is still the case that being released on a Friday
would mean going at least two days without meaningful contact
with a supervising officer when they are at their most
vulnerable.
I want to respond to the hon. Member for Bolton South East
(). It might come as a
surprise to many to discover that Members, certainly those on the
Government Benches, are only supposed to turn up in Parliament if
they disagree with something, but she asked me to clarify the
statistics on reoffending and I am pleased to be able to do so.
This Government have made tangible progress in tackling the still
huge £18 billion annual cost of reoffending and protecting the
public. Data show that, over the past 10 years, the overall
proven reoffending rate has decreased from 30.9% in 2009-10 to
25.6% in 2019-20. Of course, that is still too high and we must
drive it down further by tackling the drivers of reoffending,
strengthening the supervision and monitoring of offenders in the
community and protecting the public from becoming victims.
The Government are, of course, investing substantial sums in
doing so. It begins with helping prisoners to get off drugs,
supporting them to maintain or rebuild family ties and providing
quality education and training to get them job-ready for release.
We know that getting prison leavers into jobs can reduce the
chance of reoffending very significantly, with those who get jobs
within a year of being released up to nine percentage points less
likely to reoffend. This means that individuals can not only
support themselves and their families, but start to repay society
by contributing to our economy, which is another important reason
to support my hon. Friend’s Bill. We want ex-offenders to get
into the rhythm of job search straightaway, which will be much
easier if prison leavers do not have to cram all their
appointments, including their first visit to Jobcentre Plus, into
a Friday afternoon.
I am pleased to say that the proportion of prison leavers
employed six months after release has seen a marked positive
trend over the last year. With the number of vacancies that we
have in the country now—around 1.25 million—an increase in prison
leavers getting jobs is also good news for our economy as a
whole, but there is more to be done, including through the New
Futures Network, the Prison Service’s network of employment
brokers that works with 400 organisations to get prison leavers
into work. I commend all the employers and companies engaged in
that programme.
I was delighted to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for
Gedling () that he and our hon. Friend
the Member for Rushcliffe () will be attending the
employment advisory board in Nottingham. Of course, all of us as
MPs can play an important role in creating and promoting some of
the links with business which are so important for our whole
community.
We are recruiting new banking and identity administrators to
ensure that when prisoners leave custody they have a bank account
and ID, so that they are ready to work. The work on those
administrative requirements will be complemented by the Bill to
smooth out somewhat the leaving pattern of prisoners engaged in
those administrative activities.
We are also making significant investments in improving prison
leavers’ access to accommodation. I think my hon. Friend the
Member for Barrow and Furness used the word “paramount” in
referring to accommodation; it was also referred to effectively
by our hon. Friends the Members for Hastings and Rye () and for Milton Keynes
North (). A settled place to live is
key to reducing reoffending, and probation practitioners are much
better able to robustly supervise an offender if they know where
they are living. That is one of the reasons why last July we
launched the transitional accommodation service in five probation
regions, providing up to 12 weeks’ accommodation on release, with
support to move on to settled accommodation.
To support prison leavers with substance misuse and health needs,
we are recruiting 50 health and justice partnership co-ordinators
across England and Wales. The co-ordinators will liaise between
prisons, probation, local authorities and health partners,
improving links between services and supporting continuity of
care for prison leavers with health and substance misuse
needs.
I turn briefly to some of the other contributions to what has
been a high-quality debate, with colleagues drawing on their
personal experiences and constituency experiences, including the
brilliant work by voluntary and third-sector organisations in our
constituencies in support of this important Bill.
My hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd South () spoke effectively about the
impact of distance—whatever else you may have to do, first, you
have to get there. My hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich
West () spoke about the challenges
facing children, and my hon. Friend the Member for Dewsbury
() spoke about women. Of
course, they are absolutely right. There has been great success
in reducing the number of women in custody and, even more so,
children in custody, but there are relatively few places around
the country, which means that the average distances for those
people, who may have particular vulnerabilities, is even greater.
That makes the Bill all the more important.
My hon. Friend the Member for Dewsbury summed up the issue, and
what we are all here for, well: we need to give people all the
chance we can. If what is getting in the way boils down to a day
of the week, it really ought to be relatively straightforward to
address. Of course, it will not address everything, but it is an
important enabler.
My hon. Friend the Member for Southend West () talked about the fact that
this is about correcting unintended consequences, and our hon.
Friend the Member for Loughborough () encapsulated the situation well
by saying that people must do their punishment, but then we must
try to give them the maximum chance. She also made an important
point when she talked about the effect on staff of knowing that
somebody released on a certain day of the week would perhaps have
a lesser chance.
My hon. Friend the Member for Clwyd South accurately enumerated
all the different things that need to be in place, and my hon.
Friend the Member for Leigh () reminded us that it is not
just a question of turning up and doing something
straightforward, because in some cases the issues for individuals
will be particularly complex. My hon. Friend the Member for West
Bromwich West spoke about how for many prisoners, even those who
have not been in prison that long, the world may have changed,
thinking about technology and so on. Closer to home, my hon.
Friend the Member for Hastings and Rye spoke about how people’s
family circumstances and the home itself may have changed.
The measures I have outlined, and many more that there is not
time to cover, should help to improve resettlement opportunities
for all offenders and reduce reoffending. However, they cannot
fully address all the practical challenges, especially for those
released on a Friday. Through this Bill, we have an opportunity
to provide such offenders with the best possible chance of living
law-abiding, productive lives in the community and hence an
opportunity to cut crime, making our streets safer and protecting
constituents.
In closing, I reiterate my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member
for Barrow and Furness for bringing this Bill before the House,
and to everyone who has made this such a rich and productive
debate. I confirm with pleasure that the Government will be
supporting the Bill, and I look forward to seeing its passage
through this House.
2.00pm
With the leave of the House, I would like to thank everyone who
has contributed to this debate and supported the passage of this
Bill. In particular, I recognise the contribution of my hon.
Friend the Member for West Bromwich West (), who spoke with righteous
fury about youth offenders and the many injustices they face in
the system. His passion is well felt. My hon. Friends the Members
for Dewsbury (), for Hastings and Rye
() and for Southend West
() spoke about the power of a
criminal justice system that works to turn people’s lives around.
That is absolutely the objective we should be aiming for. I also
thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dewsbury for the evocative
term “Muscle Pit”, which is unfortunately stuck in my head for
the rest of the day.
The hon. Member for Bolton South East () on the Opposition Front
Bench spoke gracefully about why these measures matter, and I
thank her and her party for their support. My hon. Friends the
Members for Clwyd South (), for Leigh () and for Gedling () showed compassion and
fairness in what they said; their contributions in this place are
always marked by those qualities. My hon. Friend the Member for
Loughborough () could, I am sure, have spoken
for much longer on this subject. Her passion is heartfelt and her
experience is long, and what she brings to this area makes her a
credit to the House.
Finally, my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North
()—there he is, right behind
me—spoke with passion about tackling homelessness. He is
absolutely right, and I hope these measures will go some way to
achieving those ends. I also thank my right hon. Friend the
Minister for his kind and thoughtful words at the Dispatch Box,
and thank him and his team at the Ministry of Justice for their
graciousness in affording me time to learn about the subject, to
kick around ideas with them and to talk about the issues that the
Bill seeks to tackle. Their passion to improve the system is
heartfelt and real, and it burns very bright indeed.
I owe a debt of thanks to the hon. Member for Workington (), who passed this Bill on
to me. Truly, he is the Pete Best to my Ringo, but I am
incredibly grateful to him. The Bill will make a real difference,
and I am grateful to everyone who has contributed and spoken on
it, and for the support from both sides of the House.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill accordingly read a Second time; to stand committed to a
Public Bill Committee (Standing Order No. 63).
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