Recommendation 39

Accommodation is one of the most significant and urgent barriers to effective resettlement. We welcome the work the MoJ is doing to address this barrier and are particularly pleased to hear about the new accommodation service. We note that it provides up to 12 weeks of basic temporary accommodation for approximately 3,000 prison leavers. However, we are concerned that, given the comparatively small size of the female prison population, female prison leavers may be disadvantaged in accessing this service provision. The Ministry of Justice should set out how it will ensure that women are able to access this service provision as needed, and whether a proportion of this accommodation has been specifically reserved for women leaving prison.