Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the budget for probation hostels has been in each year since 1 June 2014.

Approved Premises (AP), formerly known as probation & bail hostels, are accommodation approved for the supervision or rehabilitation of persons convicted of offences, or persons granted bail in criminal proceedings.

In financial year 2017-18 the National Probation Service (NPS) budget for the 89 AP it manages in England and Wales is £68.8 million. This covers operational costs, including staffing and security. The equivalent figure for 2016-17 was £60.7 million. As NPS budgets from 2014-2016 did not identify AP expenditure as an individual item, the equivalent figure for those years is not available.

Rent, rates, maintenance and utilities costs for AP are met by Ministry of Justice Estates. In 2016-17, these costs were £17.5 million. Verified figures for the current year are not yet available.

There are also 11 independent AP in England. The contract value for these in 2017-18 is £7.4 million.