Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of increased deployment of halfway houses both pre-trial and post-custodial sentence on (1) the amount of people in custody, (2) levels of recidivism, and (3) levels of offender reintegration into society.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Effective resettlement of prison leavers is a core part of our efforts to reduce re-offending. Evidence shows that prison leavers who are without settled accommodation are almost 50 percent more likely to reoffend than those who have stable accommodation on release.
Our Prisons Strategy White Paper set out our plans to reduce reoffending, including improving prison leavers’ access to accommodation. This includes delivering our transitional accommodation service, known as Community Accommodation Service-Tier 3 (CAS3).
CAS3 was launched July 2021 in five probation regions, providing up to 12 weeks accommodation on release with support to move to settled accommodation. Between 1 July 2021 and 17 June 2022, 2,396 individuals, who would have otherwise been homeless, were accepted on to CAS3. We expanded the service to Wales in June 2022, and we will continue to rollout, to support the thousands of offenders who leave prison homeless.
Our CAS 2 service provides accommodation for people on bail who would otherwise be remanded in custody. The service has recently been reprocured and learning from the previous contract informed the design of the current provision, increasing the level of support for those living there.
As part of the investment approach, we will be undertaking an impact evaluation of accommodation provision where suitable, starting with an impact evaluation of CAS3 which we hope to publish in 2024.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of measures used by other Council of Europe states whose levels of recidivism are lower than those of the UK.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Reducing the rate of reoffending is a key aim of this Government.
As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we are driving down reoffending through investing in getting offenders into skills training, work and stable accommodation. Our approach is informed by a wide range of data and evidence, including international best practice. We regularly engage with other Council of Europe states, including information sharing on recidivism through the European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services and the Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics programme.
It is important to note, however, that care should be taken when comparing reoffending rates internationally as means of calculation between countries can vary and therefore data is not directly comparable.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve the (1) range, and (2) design, of community sentences in order to (a) decrease custody, (b) reduce recidivism, and (c) improve the reintegration of offenders into society.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Community sentences, in certain circumstances, are more effective in reducing reoffending than short custodial sentences and, when considering a community sentence, courts have a comprehensive range of requirements which they can impose. There are fourteen requirements available, including electronic monitoring and Community Payback, which the courts can choose from based on the circumstances of the case with the intention of punishing the offender, providing reparation to the community, and addressing any rehabilitative needs of the offender to improve the reintegration of offenders into society. Recently, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 strengthened community sentences by introducing the option for tougher and more flexible use of electronically monitored curfews, and powers to pilot problem-solving courts for specific cohorts of offenders that aim to address underlying needs through intensive community sentences overseen by a lead judge and multi-disciplinary team.
Following the unification of Probation services last year, we are putting additional investment into the delivery of community sentences. This includes up to a further £93 million in Community Payback to enable Probation to deliver up to 8 million hours per year. This ensures that offenders give back to the communities they have harmed, but also learn new vocational and work-ready skills.
The courts can also sentence a person to complete an Accredited Programme, designed to address the attitudes, thinking and behaviour that led to the offending. They are developed in line with the best available evidence of what works to reduce reoffending and are accredited by a panel of international experts. Evidence shows that when delivered well, offending behaviour programmes are effective at reducing recidivism. A variety of other support and interventions are available for those where delivering an Accredited Programme is not appropriate or an offender is not eligible, including Structured Interventions and Toolkits.
We have also refocused Integrated Offender Management (IOM) on our most persistent and problematic neighbourhood crime offenders and are investing further to commission services specifically for this group and introduce new roles to strengthen enforcement. IOM aligns the Probation Service more closely with the police, and builds greater links with public and voluntary services, to better incentivise offenders to overcome the complex issues that can fuel or exacerbate their criminal behaviour, such as substance misuse, poor mental health, and issues with housing or employment, in turn reducing recidivism and improving the reintegration of offenders into society.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to adopting the 'Horses of Hope' pilot scheme in prisons in England and Wales, following its use in other countries including the Republic of Ireland.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
My noble friend is right to point to the importance of schemes like Horses of Hope, which help prison leavers gain skills and find employment on release. We know that employment reduces the chance of reoffending significantly and so improving employment outcomes is a key pillar of our plans to cut crime by reducing reoffending.
Similar provision through RMF Group in partnership with Milton Harris Racing is currently running in two prisons in England and Wales with a further prison due to start shortly. The courses delivered are linked to the British Horseracing Association and the Royal Stud, providing level 1 and 2 qualifications, as well as employment and accommodation opportunities on release.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government which pilot schemes they plan to encourage in prisons in order (1) to reduce recidivism, and (2) to increase future employment opportunities for prisoners.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we are driving down reoffending through investing in getting offenders into skills training, work and stable accommodation.
We know that employment reduces the chance of reoffending significantly, by up to nine percentage points. Earlier this month we launched the Employability Innovation Fund to enable prison governors to work with more employers and training providers to repurpose workshops, deliver sector specific skills training to meet the changing needs of the economy and smooth the path from prison to employment.
The Future Skills Programme and HMP Academies strands of the Fund will pilot innovative approaches to upskilling prisoners, invite employers into prisons to run training academies and create pathways into employment on release. This will cut crime by reducing reoffending while helping businesses to fill labour shortages and grow.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what targets they have for reducing rates of reoffending; and what plans they have for (1) a partial replacement of custodial sentences with community sentences, and (2) policies to assist families, communities and schools to dissuade young people from crime.
Answered by Lord Faulks
We have taken decisive action to reduce reoffending. For the first time in recent history those sentenced to less than 12 months in custody receive probation support on release. We have also opened up the delivery of rehabilitation services to a diverse range of providers, including private and voluntary sector organisations. While there is no specific national target for reducing reoffending, Community Rehabilitation Companies are incentivised to help offenders turn their backs on crime and will only be paid in full if they are successful in reducing reoffending.
The government is currently considering what options there may be for strengthening and improving the current community sentence framework, and in particular the role that technology may play in this. No decisions have yet been made.
We are committed to preventing youth offending and supporting families. We contribute to the Youth Engagement Fund which is using social impact bonds to support up to 8,000 disadvantaged young people to improve their educational qualifications and secure employment which will reduce their risk of becoming involved in offending. We have also introduced family engagement workers in young adult and women’s prisons to help strengthen family relationships.
Asked by: Earl of Dundee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of comparative statistics in other European states for (1) custodial sentences per head of population, and (2) reoffending rates for individuals who have served either (a) custodial or (b) community sentences.
Answered by Lord Faulks
We are keen to learn from innovative justice practice in other countries and are currently reviewing international evidence of what works.
We contribute towards the Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics and the International Centre for Prison Studies, which provide a comparison of custodial sentences per head of population.
In the case of reoffending, few comparisons have been published because of the limited number of countries which regularly collect and analyse such data and the different methods which are used to calculate these rates. The 2010 “Compendium of reoffending statistics and analysis” compares reoffending rates for England and Wales, Scotland and the Netherlands. It concluded that most of the difference in reoffending rates between countries identified was due to the different measurement techniques, rather than any real difference in the level of reoffending between particular groups of offenders.