Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of women who leave prison to homelessness.

As part of our commitment to eliminate rough sleeping, we are working across Government, with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), the Welsh Government and other Government Departments, to address the barriers offenders face in securing suitable accommodation.

Our Prisons Strategy White Paper sets out our vision that no-one subject to probation supervision is released from prison homeless. By 2024-25 we will spend £200 million a year to reduce reoffending, including improving prison leavers’ access to accommodation. This includes expanding our new Community Accommodation Service (CAS), which currently provides up to 12 weeks temporary housing in five probation regions, to all prison leavers in England and Wales at risk of homelessness who are subject to probation supervision.

The CAS service takes account of the needs of women, including those with complex needs, with accommodation provision dedicated to single gender usage as required. Community Probation Practitioners (CPPs), working together with local partners, are responsible for ensuring that vulnerable female prison leavers receive appropriate support. Additional support for female prison leavers can be accessed by CPPs through the Women’s Commissioned Rehabilitation Service (CRS). This provision is a holistic service offer, delivered by expert and experienced women’s services, that covers a broad range of interventions including accommodation support.

Additionally, our White Paper outlines our commitment to increase the number of Housing Specialists from 20 to 48 across England and Wales, supporting prisons to be more strategic in their response to reducing homelessness and partnership working.

Accommodation circumstances for offenders are reported annually as official statistics. Statistics show that 4,685 women were released from custody in the year to March 2021, with 50% going into secure, long-term accommodation and a further 10% to bail/probation accommodation. 13% were recorded as being homeless or rough sleeping at the point of release. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-annual-update-to-march-2021.

Data for the period 01 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 will be published in July 2022 in the Community Performance Annual report.