Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
The Ministry’s efforts to reduce the £18.1 billion cost of reoffending are being put at...
Recommendation
The Ministry’s efforts to reduce the £18.1 billion cost of reoffending are being put at risk by the absence of a cross-government strategy. Reoffending has a substantial cost to the economy, in addition to its considerable impact on the emotional wellbeing of victims and wider society. The Ministry recognises that the best way to tackle crime is to reduce reoffending, and that this must involve Departments across government. HMPPS has recently appointed a Director responsible for reducing reoffending and is working with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to reduce reoffending through initiatives such as the Prison Leavers Project and the Through the Gate programme. Despite our recommendations in May 2019, there is still no sign of a cross-government strategy for reducing reoffending. The way offenders are treated on their release from prison has a significant impact on how they re-integrate into society. Sustained progress in reducing reoffending relies on providing the support offenders desperately need on leaving prison, including securing stable accommodation. While the Ministry and HMPPS assure us that they have carefully sought to secure stable accommodation for those who have left prison during the pandemic, we are concerned by cases of prisoners being released without settled accommodation. Recommendation: As we have previously recommended, the Ministry should publish a cross-government reducing reoffending strategy within three months. This should: • set out roles and responsibilities, clear targets supported by activities and how it will measure whether the strategy is working; and 8 Improving the prison estate • explain how its long-term strategy for the prison estate will contribute to reducing reoffending.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2021 5.2 The department welcomes and agrees with the Committee’s recommendation on the need for a strategic approach to the complex issue of reoffending. As noted in its recent update to the Committee on progress on Transforming Rehabilitation, the COVID-19 period affected its plans to publish a strategy in the summer 2020. Nonetheless, the department outlined its ambition to reduce reoffending in the recent Smarter Approach to Sentencing White Paper, through a cross-government strategic approach that focuses on ensuring individuals have a job, a home and medical treatment. The department has committed to publishing an update on this work in due course, and to write to the Committee with further details before the end of 2020. 5.3 This work will build upon the strong cross-government working that has been in place during the COVID-19 period, particularly with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to provide benefits and accommodation support to prison leavers. The department also continues to work closely with health partners to ensure individuals receive treatment for drug addiction and support with mental health issues. 5.4 It will also dovetail with the department’s long-term estates strategy which, as well as setting out a blueprint for further expansion of the prison estate, will include proposals for how prisons can be designed to best support rehabilitation and reducing reoffending. As part of this, the department will learn from the work at Wellingborough (to be named HMP Five Wells) and Glen Parva and ensure that evaluation is embedded into its prison build programme so it can assess what technologies and interventions work best to improve prisoner outcomes