UK Inquiry Tracker

Improving resettlement support for prison leavers

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 16 May 2023 Closed: 14 Feb 2024 Parliament page

Reoffending has significant costs to society. This includes direct financial losses to victims and the costs that the criminal justice system must meet, from running police investigations and court hearings, to holding offenders in prisons and ensuring their effective supervision in the community. In 2019, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) … Read more Reoffending has significant costs to society. This includes direct financial losses to victims and the costs that the criminal justice system must meet, from running police investigations and court hearings, to holding offenders in prisons and ensuring their effective supervision in the community. In 2019, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) estimated that reoffending across all adult offenders identified in 2016 had cost society £16.7 billion (in 2017-18 prices). Prison leavers are more likely to reoffend if they are not resettled into the community, for example if they have nowhere to live, no job or other income, and have poor continuity of healthcare. HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and its partners aim to minimise the risk of this through their resettlement work. Based on the National Audit Office (NAO) report Improving resettlement support for prison leavers to reduce reoffending the Committee will question Antonia Romeo, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and officials from HM Prison and Probation Service. Commenting on the NAO report, Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “Reducing reoffending matters to us all. Too many prison leavers reoffend after their release, which causes harm to victims and costs the criminal justice system and wider society dearly. Severe staff shortages and high workloads mean that government is not consistently getting the basics right to help prison leavers’ resettlement. “HM Prison and Probation Service has launched new initiatives in housing and employment to help prisoners resettle. However, it must improve its understanding of what works so it can ensure these initiatives are making a real difference for the £550 million of taxpayers’ money it is investing.” If you have evidence on these issues, please submit it here by 23:59 on Sunday 28 May . Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. Show less

18 Recommendations

9 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

1 Letter

1 Event

Activity timeline 5 events

14 Feb
2024

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Seventy-eighth report from Session 2022-23

11 Nov
2023

Report published

Seventy-Eighth Report - Resettlement support for prison leavers

25 Sep
2023

Correspondence

Correspondence from Amy Rees, Chief Executive, HM Prison and Probation Service, re improving resettlement support for prison leavers, dated…

8 Jun
2023

Oral evidence

Improving resettlement support for prison leavers

8 Jun
2023

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House

Improving resettlement support for prison leavers

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

8 Jun 2023

View on parliament.uk

Improving resettlement support for prison leavers

Amy Rees · HMPPS Antonia Romeo · Ministry of Justice James McEwen · Ministry of Justice Jim Barton · HM Prisons and Probation Service

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Seventy-Eighth Report - Resettlement support for prison leavers	HC 1329	11 Nov 2023	27	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

2 results

25 Recommendation Deferred

Seventy-Eighth Report - Resettleme…

MoJ's prison capacity expansion plans face significant funding and inflationary challenges.

MoJ told us it has multiple options to increase prison capacity, including building new prisons and refurbishing the existing estate. MoJ told us it plans to increase prisoner capacity by 20,000 places at a cost of £3.8 billion, but it … Read more

Government Response

The government accepted the recommendation in principle and committed to responding to the Committee by May 2024 with projections for prison population, new prisons, and resettlement demand. They will also publish a new independently scrutinised annual statement on prison capacity, future demand, and build pipeline.

HM Treasury

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27 Recommendation Deferred

Seventy-Eighth Report - Resettleme…

Probation Service faces significant increase in demand for resettlement services

As these additional prisoners progress through their sentences, there will be higher demand for resettlement services. MoJ’s central estimate in its recent modelling work on forecast volumes of prison leavers starting their supervision in the community shows that, while projections … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees and will respond to the Committee by May 2024 with projections for the prison population and demand for resettlement services. They will also publish a new annual statement on prison capacity and update on prison build, and HMPPS will provide further information after the annual statement is published, additionally committing to 'consider' the demand for resettlement services alongside the NAO's recommendation for a long-term strategy.

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 25 of 18 classified

Accepted 23

Deferred 2

Total 18 recs + 9 conclusions

Correspondence 1 letter

25 Sep 2023 Correspondence from Amy Rees, Chief Executive, HM Prison and Probation Service, re improving resettlement support for prison leavers, dated 28 July 2023

Parliament page