Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 20
Seventy-Eighth Report - Resettlement support for prison leavers
Published 11 Nov 2023
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Improving resettlement support for prison leavers All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
In the 2021 Spending Review, MoJ secured £550 million over three years to reduce reoffending. MoJ allocated this funding to HMPPS, with £484 million assigned to support adult offenders. However, this funding is subject to change as MoJ considers the potential impacts of the government’s Efficiency and Savings Review.46 MoJ told us that “difficult choices” lie ahead as it looks for ways to save 7.5% across its budget. We asked MoJ how and where it expected to make the necessary savings. MoJ told us that the easiest place for departments to make cuts is in discretionary programmes, such as reducing reoffending and victim support, but that it has a clear steer from ministers to protect these areas as far as possible. MoJ told us it is “crucial” that it finds more efficient ways to deliver resettlement services while protecting the most effective initiatives from budget cuts.47
From: Public Accounts Committee, Seventy-Eighth Report - Resettlement support for prison leavers (HC 1329), 11 November 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 February 2024 (deadline 11 January 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it agrees with each of the Committee's recommendations on resettlement support for prison leavers, giving target dates for several of them.
- On inequalities, HMPPS is planning a programme of work to understand disparities in resettlement outcomes, and says that "By April 2025" it will deliver this analysis across prioritised thematic areas.
- On an action plan, HMPPS will "respond to the Committee by the six-month deadline" and says its plan will aim for "an adequate and consistent resettlement service" for all prison leavers by April 2025.
- On substance misuse, MoJ and the Department of Health and Social Care will develop a proposal on metrics, and the government says it will publish these metrics routinely, with a target implementation date of summer 2024.
- On evaluation, impact evaluations are "expected to be complete" by summer 2024, though findings on impact for some initiatives will only be available beyond 2024.