Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people aged 18 to 21 were released from custody to homelessness in each year since 2010.

It is vital that everyone leaving prison has somewhere safe and secure to live. Having somewhere stable to live acts as a platform for ex-offenders to be able to access the services and support needed to turn their back on crime for good.

The full information requested could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. Some of the data is available, however, and this is detailed below.

Published statistics for 2017/18 showing the accommodation status for all offenders, which include a breakdown by age, can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-mi-update-to-march-2018

As part of the Government initiative to reduce and ultimately eliminate rough sleeping across England, we are investing up to £6.4 million over two years in a pilot scheme to help ex-offenders into accommodation from three prisons: Bristol, Pentonville and Leeds. The pilots will focus on male prisoners who have served shorter sentences, who have been identified as having a risk of homelessness. Contracts have now been awarded in the three areas and, following a mobilisation period, we expect services to commence in summer of this year. This is a concrete step in our commitment to tackling rough sleeping.