Tabled by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in
releasing women from prison into safe and secure housing; and
what assessment they have made of what constitutes a satisfactory
accommodation outcome for women released from prison.
(Lab)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Warwick of
Undercliffe, and at her request, I beg leave to ask the Question
standing in her name on the Order Paper.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice
( of Tredegar) (Con)
My Lords, our vision is that no female offender who is subject to
probation supervision will be released from prison homeless.
Building on the success of our Covid emergency scheme, last July
we introduced a transitional accommodation service for prison
leavers in five regions, and we are expanding it further. We hold
the system to account through ambitious accommodation targets set
out in the target operating model that we introduced last year.
(Lab)
My Lords, that is well and good—I am grateful to the Minister—but
while it is good to know that some progress has been made, there
are still problems. The accommodation service is in place in only
five of the 11 probation regions of England and Wales, and there
has been no commitment to timelines or to safe and secure housing
specifically for women. Some 77% of women left one prison without
any safe and secure housing; one was provided with a tent. The
service provides temporary housing for only 12 weeks. Can the
Minister give some commitment on timing for rollout and on what
the Government will do for vulnerable prison leavers after 12
weeks? Can he indicate how support will reflect the particular
needs of women?
of Tredegar (Con)
There was quite a lot in that question. I acknowledge that it is
a very important topic. I will pick up on a couple of the points
made. The 77% figure comes from the recent IMB report for HMP
Bronzefield, and it refers to safe and secure accommodation. That
is a different approach to what we use, which is to determine
whether people are actually homeless. Do they have somewhere—a
roof over their head—for that night? We are very aware of the
particular needs of women prisoners. Our accommodation programme
is targeted at all prisoners, but we have particular people
working in women’s prisons to ensure that women’s needs are
specifically met.
(Con)
My Lords, as my noble friend has just illustrated, there are wide
discrepancies in the ways in which homelessness is measured for
women leaving prison between the Prison Service and the
independent monitoring board at Bronzefield. I am grateful that
the Government recognise that something needs to be done about
this to give confidence in the figures. Can the Minister say when
we can expect a set of robust categories to be in place, on which
everyone can agree?
of Tredegar (Con)
I think that robust categories are in place. We define
homelessness, in accordance with the legal definition, as being
where the individual does not have any accommodation available
and reasonable for them to occupy, including where they may be
rough sleeping, squatting or in a night shelter, emergency hostel
or campsite. It is very important to ensure that we are all
looking at the same data. We publish the data annually and I
invite all noble Lords to look at those figures.
(LD)
My Lords, the disparity between government figures and those of
the independent monitoring board is because we do not have one
standard measure of what acceptable accommodation for prison
leavers looks like. It is not a sofa, and it is not a tent. Will
the Minister commit to facilitating the production of one
standard measure? What we do not measure, we cannot manage.
of Tredegar (Con)
I absolutely agree with that point. I have said from this
Dispatch Box, on a number of areas, that data is absolutely
critical. We need to ensure that we are looking at the same
thing. I set out the legal definition of homelessness, and we
publish statistics on this. I am pleased to say that there has
been an improvement in the figures recently. The percentage of
prison leavers recorded as either homeless or rough sleeping has
fallen from 16% to 12%. We want to make that even better.
My Lords, Friday releases from prison, in particular, are hugely
problematic. This is particularly the case for geographically
dispersed women’s prisons, because women cannot travel home in
time to make a housing application with their local authority
before the office closes. Are the Government aware of this
specific problem, and can they offer any solutions as to what can
be done to overcome it?
of Tredegar (Con)
My Lords, I am more than aware of this problem, because we
debated it both in Committee and on Report for legislation which
was going through this House. It is a real issue, and
particularly for prisons which are in more disparate parts of the
country where it can take people longer to travel back to where
they originally came from. Prison governors are aware of this.
The figures—which I do not have at hand—are getting better in
this regard. Perhaps I can write to the right reverend Prelate
further on this point.
The Lord Speaker ()
My Lords, we have a virtual contribution from the noble Lord,
.
(Lab) [V]
My Lords, I wanted to ask my question on the next Question.
(Lab)
My Lords, it is very clear that many women end up in
circumstances where perpetrators of abuse exploit and take
advantage of them if they are not in safe and secure housing. One
recent study has shown that, overwhelmingly, a number of those
women in prison have previously been subjected to abuse and,
therefore, suffer trauma. Is not the priority, therefore, to
ensure that there is more trauma-informed work available to work
with women, so that they do not enter the criminal justice
system?
of Tredegar (Con)
My Lords, the noble Baroness is absolutely right, but we have
seen a significant reduction in the number of women prisoners in
the past three to four years. There will always be some women in
prison, but the figures have gone down significantly. In
addition, as we are talking about housing, four of the housing
specialists that we have put into prisons are specifically in
women’s prisons, so they are acutely aware of the particular
needs of women prisoners. They are in Styal, Bronzefield,
Peterborough and New Hall.
(Con)
My Lords, we know that, sadly, a large number of women in prison
were victims of domestic abuse before they started their
sentence. This makes leaving to live in safe and secure housing
vitally important—but equally important is psychological support.
What are the Government doing to ensure that specialist mental
health support and mentoring are available for all women leaving
prison for as long as they need it?
of Tredegar (Con)
My Lords, this is obviously a very important issue. We have tried
to join up the dots between the Prison Service and the NHS. The
problem in the past was that women left prison, and the NHS did
not know about them; the Prison Service had, so to speak, passed
them on to nobody. The GP is the best way in which to access
mental health support, in particular, in the community.
Therefore, we are working with the Prison Service to make sure
that the links between the Prison Service and the NHS are
stronger and better.
(Lab)
My Lords, the Minister in answer to my noble friend’s question
said that his vision was that no women prisoners should be
homeless. We have seen from the questions of noble Lords, and
from the noble Baroness, Lady Sater, my former colleague, the
breadth of the problems that women prisoners face when they come
out of prison. Can the Minister say something about how he will
monitor the impact of the Government’s policy to see that this
integrated support, which is the only way in which to prevent
reoffending, is actually working?
of Tredegar (Con)
My Lords, integrated support is absolutely key—I agree with the
noble Lord on that. We have done a number of things; we have set
up a scheme to offer 12 weeks’ accommodation to prison leavers
with support to move to settled housing and, by 2024-25, we will
be investing £200 million per year to transform our approach to
rehabilitation. But of course we need to be held to account on
this, and we hold the Prison Service to account on this. We
publish data, and the data is meant to be clear and transparent.
There has been an improvement in the figures, and I want to see
them improve even more.
(CB)
My Lords, I declare an interest as head of the Sikh prison
chaplaincy service. Prison chaplains can play an important role
in rehabilitation. Does the Minister agree that smaller faiths
should have the same access to prisoners, in education, pastoral
care and so on, as the larger faiths?
of Tredegar (Con)
My Lords, I disagree with the noble Lord only on one point, when
he said that prison chaplains can play an important role for
prisoners, including in rehabilitation. I think that
underestimates the point; I would say that prison chaplains can
play a crucial and fundamental role in prison life, in and
outside prison. As to smaller faiths, maybe I should declare my
interest, because I agree.
