Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 33
Fifteenth Report - Improving the prison estate
Published 11 Sep 2020
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Improving the prison estate All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Almost half of those who spend time in prison will go on to reoffend within a year of their release. Reoffending costs society and the economy £18.1 billion each year. Over half of this (£10 billion) is the direct costs to individuals and services due to a crime taking place.75 Reoffending can also have a considerable impact on the emotional wellbeing of victims and on wider society. The Ministry recognised that the best way to tackle crime was to reduce reoffending. HMPPS similarly told us that it was working hard to ensure that when people leave prison, they have the right support in place and do not reoffend. It told us that it had recruited a new director for reducing reoffending, specifically to help it look more widely at how it could reduce reoffending, as well as having established resettlement and training prisons to help prisoners address the behaviour that led to them to reoffend. HMPPS also told us that it was working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to identify how they could provide the proper support for people leaving prison through initiatives such as the Prison Leavers Project. It explained that this was aligned with its Through the Gate programme, which looked at the needs of people leaving prison and started working with them several weeks before they leave prison to try to address their needs. Witnesses explained that reoffending was not just an issue for HMPPS or the Ministry and that addressing it would require a cross-government effort.76
From: Public Accounts Committee, Fifteenth Report - Improving the prison estate (HC 244), 11 September 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 November 2020 (deadline 11 November 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the six recommendations, with target dates between December 2020 and April 2021.
- On a long-term prison estate strategy, the department will write to the Committee in January 2021, then "proposes to consult" in early 2021 before publishing a comprehensive strategy in summer 2021.
- On women's prisons, the department "accepts this recommendation" and will write in January 2021; the summer 2021 estate strategy "will include how it plans to improve conditions in the women's estate".
- On capacity, it will publish prison population projections "by the end of 2020" and, "By April 2021", provide an update on progress, including plans for expected use of temporary accommodation.
- On reducing reoffending, it has "committed to publishing an update on this work in due course" and to write to the Committee "before the end of 2020".