Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people on being released from prison have been classified as having (a) no fixed abode and (b) insecure housing in each year since 2014.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Data on accommodation status of offenders released from custody to the supervision of Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), is published as part of Community Performance statistics, with data available from the October-December 2015 quarter. The latest publication can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-mi-update-to-june-2018. It may also be useful to see the accompanying annex to that publication which includes the accommodation status for all offenders released from custody, including those under National Probation Service (NPS) supervision, and offenders on community sentences: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/729062/accommodation-cirumstances-tables-2018.xlsx.

Everyone leaving custody should have a safe and suitable home to go to on release; having somewhere to live gives people a stable platform from which to access health services, hold down a job and reduces the likelihood of them reoffending. Staff in both CRCs and the NPS work together with local authorities and other providers of accommodation with the aim of ensuring all offenders have accommodation on release. The Government recently published its Rough Sleeping Strategy, launching a £100 million initiative to reduce and ultimately eliminate rough sleeping across England. As part of this strategy, MoJ and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), will be investing approximately £6m over two years in a pilot scheme to support ex-offenders secure suitable accommodation upon release. The Cabinet Office has also introduced a new Reducing Reoffending Board that will work across government to tackle some of the main causes of reoffending, including the lack of suitable accommodation on release.