The Lord Bishop of Lichfield
To ask His Majesty’s Government what support they are providing for ex-offenders to support their transition from life in prison and their reintegration into society.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede) (Lab)
My Lords, effective resettlement of prison leavers is crucial to reduce reoffending. This includes making sure that someone has a home, family links where appropriate, access to healthcare, a job or education, and timely access to benefits where needed. We have committed to ensuring that pre-release plans are in place for prison leavers to ensure that needs are identified and addressed appropriately. Community probation practitioners co-ordinate individual rehabilitation, supported by pre-release teams, ensuring that they receive appropriate provision through prison-based and commissioned rehabilitative services.
The Lord Bishop of Lichfield
My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. Although most prisoners will of course be looking forward to their release, there will be those also for whom release will be difficult or even traumatic, particularly some of those who have served many years in prison and who may miss the settled routines of life inside. What work are His Majesty’s Government doing to help such ex-offenders strengthen their sense of belonging, meaning and identity following release?
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
I thank the right reverend Prelate for that question. It is a very profound one, because of course some prisoners do get institutionalised when they have served lengthy prison sentences. The answer to the question is putting in place accommodation, something for the prisoners to do with their time when they are released—either education or employment—and, where appropriate, encouraging ongoing family ties. That combination of support needs to be provided by the Probation Service, which I believe is the best way of encouraging long-term prisoners not to reoffend when they are released.
Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames (LD)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the problems highlighted by the right reverend Prelate’s Question are compounded by the prison overcrowding crisis? The need to use whatever space is available on the estate, wherever it may be, hampers access to suitable training courses, disrupts family and community ties, of which the noble Lord spoke, and makes it harder to prepare prisoners for release.
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
Yes, I agree with the noble Lord’s point, which is why my right honourable friend Shabana Mahmood made the announcement yesterday in which the Government committed to building three new prisons. Those had been announced by the previous Government, but yesterday money was committed to expedite those prisons. It is not because we want to fill those prisons up; it is because prisons need to be run at less than 100% capacity to enable all the rehabilitative activities that can be undertaken in prison to operate to reduce the chances of reoffending. So I agree with the point which the noble Lord made.
Lord Lilley (Con)
My Lords, I congratulate the right reverend Prelate on raising this issue, which is immensely important, much neglected and central to Christian teaching—an innovation from those Benches. I also congratulate the Government on appointing a Minister who has direct expertise in and commitment to this subject as Prisons Minister. I have looked back and I cannot find any occasion when this House or its committees have produced a study of training, rehabilitation and support for prisoners. Would the Minister welcome such a report, should your Lordships’ House decide to ask one of its committees to look into the issue?
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
Yes, I would welcome that. There have been numerous attempts to try to tie up the elements of what happens to prisoners as they leave prison. In the previous Government, there was a Through the Gate initiative, which tried to do the same thing. The current Government are trying to overcome this problem. It is very difficult; it is a resource-intensive thing to co-ordinate all the services to try to reduce the reoffending of prisoners. But it is worth pointing out that, when one looks at averages, there has been a slight reduction in the amount of reoffending over the last 20 years or so, which is encouraging. Nevertheless, it is a substantial problem and, although it is not for me to say, if the House were to want to look at this matter, I would welcome that.
Lord Dubs (Lab)
My Lords, I recently had a chance to visit Belmarsh as a member of the Justice and Home Affairs Select Committee. Talking to some of the prisoners there, their plea was that they wanted training so as to have skills to take into the outside world. Does the Minister agree, and would he indicate that there is any way forward with our difficulties in achieving that?
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
My Lords, of course I agree with my noble friend. I, too, have visited Belmarsh and I agree with the point he makes about training. In fact, my noble friend Lord Timpson, who has, of course, great experience in these matters, has in his previous business life set up training facilities in prisons. One of the points that my noble friend makes is that now there are many other providers of training within prisons, and what we need is the capacity within our prison system to take advantage of those training opportunities.
Lord Singh of Wimbledon (CB)
My Lords, I declare an interest. I worked for more than 20 years advising the Sikh prison chaplaincy. The Sikh chaplaincy requires Sikh chaplains to liaise with prisoners about to be released and their home community and gurdwara to help find the prisoner work and accommodation on release. It works well, and the chaplain-general has commended the Sikh initiative, which has also been a subject of comment in the Times. Does the Minister agree that, if this initiative were extended to the work of other faiths, it would really help the prisoners and there would be a considerable fall in reoffending?
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
I absolutely recognise the point that the noble Lord makes about the importance of the chaplaincy. My understanding of the chaplaincy is that it is multifaith. There are Sikh chaplains, if that is the right expression, but there are chaplains from other faiths as well and they work together, in my understanding, to try to enable resettlement. I know through personal experience some Christian ministers who work in chaplaincies who also facilitate reconnection with communities to try to help resettlement. So I absolutely agree with the point the noble Lord makes and thoroughly commend the work of the chaplaincy.
Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Con)
My Lords, I ask the Minister about progress on de-bunching prisoner releases on Friday. He will be aware that prisoners who are due for release on Saturday or Sunday are released on a Friday, so three-sevenths of all releases happen under the shadow of the weekend. All parties agree that this is an unsatisfactory way of reintegrating people. Could we please find a way to let the House know exactly what is happening and what progress is being made to resolve this problem?
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
I thank the noble Lord for asking that question. I am very aware of this issue. I was under the impression that the practice of releasing on Fridays had been substantially reduced. However, if that is not the case, I will write to him, but I understand the point he is making. I thought there had been provisions made in recent legislation to stop this.
Lord Fox (LD)
My Lords, the Probation Service is an important link in this chain, so could the Minister please update your Lordships’ House on progress on recruiting the many more additional probation officers that we need in order to handle the workload and the important job that they do?
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
Yes, I absolutely understand the point that the noble Lord, Lord Fox, is making. Last year, the Government recruited 1,000 new probation officers; in the current year, we aim to recruit 1,300 officers and my understanding is that we are on target to achieve that. Of course, it takes two or three years to train probation officers so that they can get the relevant experience and confidence, and that process is ongoing. We absolutely want to revitalise the Probation Service. That is absolutely central to our ambitions for greater use of community sentences in future.
Lord Sandhurst (Con)
My Lords, the most recent Probation Service data showed that around 40% of homeless ex-prisoners reoffend within a year, compared with 19% of those with stable housing. Can the Minister please explain, first, what data-driven adjustments are being made to improve outcomes for ex-prisoners, and, secondly, how the Government intend to track the success of reintegration programmes and collate the data?
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)
The noble Lord asks an important question and the answer lies in housing and accommodation. At the moment, there are three tiers of possible housing options available to prisoners. Community accommodation services are in either tier 1, 2 or 3. The key to resolving the issue is to get prisoners into one of those tiers of accommodation and then moving out of it as appropriate and, in the case of the third tier, after 12 weeks. Of course, moving out into settled accommodation requires the availability of that accommodation, and that availability varies across the country. Many other parts of society are competing for that accommodation. So we are very aware of the point that the noble Lord has made and the Government are doing their best to address restrictions on the housing that will support offenders when they leave prison.