Imprisonment for Public Protection Prisoners

Debate between Lord Bird and Lord Timpson

Monday 6th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

Release is never risk-free, but we need to balance the opportunity and the risk. I am seeing a much more stable Prison and Probation Service. By that, I mean that we have the right number of people in the right places with the right resources. I have been going round the country doing probation roadshows, talking to probation staff up and down the country about what our plan is to get through to next April, when we will have supply matching demand. Even though the focus of many of these conversations is on prisons, if we do not sort out and support probation—that is where the heavy lifting in the justice system is done—we will never make the progress that we all want to achieve.

[Lord Bird (CB)]

The Minister says that he is ambitious, which I am pleased to hear, but where in government is work to prevent people ending up in prison? I cannot see it. I cannot see homelessness prevention, prison prevention or the exportation of poverty from people’s lives—90% of people in prison are there from poverty.

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for that question and for the work that he does. Some 80% of offending is reoffending, so something is going wrong when so many people just go round in a cycle. One of the main reasons is related to housing. We have far too many people leaving prison with nowhere to live, so I have managed to get agreement across government to halve the number of people leaving prison with nowhere to live by the end of this Parliament. That is one important step in making sure that, when people get out, we help them to stay out.