Early Release Prisoners: Preventing Homelessness and Rough Sleeping
House of Lords · Lords Chamber · 16 Jul 2026 · 13 speeches · Official Report
Question for Short Debate
Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of partnership working between prisons and local housing authorities in preventing homelessness and rough sleeping among prisoners released early.
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who are here today to debate an issue that could get lost amidst the penal populism informing much of the response to the next waves of early release following the Sentencing Act 2026. Why do I refer to penal populism? Crime must be punished, and I completely understand the concerns of many victims about early release. However, the public vengefulness politicians court to achieve popularity, notably by demanding ever-longer custodial sentences, has led to ever-longer sentences, clogged up our prisons and contributed to the need for these great swathes of early release. The inflation in custodial sentence length between 2010 and 2025 was 45%. In their book, The Honest Politician ’ s Guide to Prisons and Probation , criminologists King and Willmott reveal just how many ex-Justice Secretaries, from both main parties, regret “playing to the gallery” as “tough law and order figures”, as my noble friend Lord Clarke of Nottingham, who was Home Secretary following the 1992 general election, described his successors. This response was driven by the understandable outcry following the Jamie Bulger killing in early 1993 by two other children. Instead of acknowledging the need to challenge inadequate parenting and manage expectations about what a criminal justice system can do, the Home Secretary who followed my noble friend Lord Clarke kickstarted the still ongoing competition between the two main parties as to who could be toughest on crime. My...
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for securing this important debate. For 1,000 prison leavers every single month, their first day of freedom is the first day of a new sentence: rough sleeping on our streets. The cyclical link between homelessness and the justice system is not an abstract policy debate; it is an urgent humanitarian and public safety emergency happening right outside our doors. We must be honest about how we got here. This crisis is the structural inheritance of 14 years of systemic neglect by previous Governments. On their watches we have seen a staggering rise in rough sleeping and a left-behind, crumbling prison estate running dangerously close to absolute capacity because of a failure to build secure social housing. Worse, they chose punishment over prevention. By keeping the archaic Vagrancy Act on the statute book, the state’s default response to a vulnerable prison leaver sleeping in a doorway was to criminalise rather than support them. It was a broken approach that practically guaranteed a fast-track route back to custody. As a result, 68% of prisoners released directly on to the streets reoffend within a single year. Thankfully, we are seeing a fundamental shift from crisis management to genuine prevention. Having worked at the front end of social housing for almost two decades, I welcome the recognition of the present Government that stable housing is the foundation of public safety. Instead of papering over the cracks, decisive action...
Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville
My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, on securing this debate on a subject which I know is dear to his heart. It is also important to me. Both of us spoke to amendments in debates on the Social Housing Bill around the difficulties of housing ex-offenders. Much depends on how long the offender has been in prison, whether they are still in touch with their family, whether they are likely to secure employment and, not least, their mental health. The Library has produced an extensive brief for this debate, and the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, has provided startling statistics. In 2024-25, approximately 1,000 prisoners a month were released from prison without anywhere to stay and went on to sleep rough, as has already been said. It seems that the early release scheme, introduced in 2024 to reduce the prison overcrowding, has not always been implemented in a satisfactory fashion but hurriedly, with little preparation made for accommodation provision. An ex-offender released with nowhere to go on their first night is likely to sleep rough. This means a shop doorway, a traditional bus shelter-not a modern one-an empty, derelict property or even a park bench. This might seem acceptable on a short-term basis with weather similar to that we are currently experiencing, but not if it is November or January, raining and with temperatures well below those to which they have been acclimatised in prison. Those who have served long sentences may have become dependent on the...
My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for securing this important debate, not least because it brings together two of my long-term concerns-homelessness and the rehabilitation of offenders. I declare my interests as the chair of the Church Housing Association and as a trustee of the Clink Charity, which works within and beyond prisons. Homelessness is both a cause and a consequence of offending. Breaking this cycle requires an understanding of individual vulnerabilities and a “whole community” approach to rehabilitation. Without long-term, joined-up thinking that provides prison leavers with the tools to live independently, prisoners are trapped in a cycle of reoffending. This undermines their intrinsic human value. From these Benches, I would add “their God-given value”. In St Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus notably refers to concern for prisoners as one of just a handful of criteria determining a divine judgment. At the risk of repeating a cliché, prisoner rehabilitation requires a person-centred approach. It is a cliché that needs repeating, because all too often what we offer those leaving prison is a service-centred approach. The convenience of service providers and their organisational boundaries separate a human being into a series of disjointed attributes. They are homeless; they are unemployed; they are unskilled; they are unwell; they are unable to receive benefits in a timely manner. Different service providers then seek to respond to these distinct aspects,...
My Lords, I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for tabling this debate and for his compassionate and evidence-based work over many years in this space to make our country safer and to improve the lives of all those impacted by the criminal justice system. The topic of this debate is a subject close to my heart as well, having spent part of my career working with people immediately prior to, on the day of, and following, release-known in the sector as “through the gate” work. I will focus most of my remarks today on women, because that is the bulk of where my professional experience lies. As alluded to by the right reverend Prelate, the transition from prison to community is a tough one. Some of the people I have worked with have told me it was a tougher transition than going from the community to prison. It is made harder by a lack of supportive relationships with people not involved in crime, by complicated applications for benefits, by trying to ensure that you have the correct medication, by perhaps trying to ensure that you have the correct support for abstinence programmes-and then you might be met at the gates by your pimp or dealer. There is also the enormous social stigma that can last many years after your conviction and licence have ended. In the middle of all this is the question of where the person might sleep that night and on subsequent nights, which is crucial to determining future positive outcomes. Noble Lords are well aware that the country is in a...
Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone
My Lords, I pay tribute to the many people who have spoken in the debate, with their direct and personal knowledge and commitment to this intractable issue: a subject that so often people do not want to know about. Above all, I pay tribute to the noble Lord for his steadfast and long-term commitment to people in prison, their relationships and their families, because so many relationships break down when someone goes to prison, and then the prospect of finding a home or work when they come out is all the less. I am only saying the obvious, but it needs to be repeated. No one should complete a prison sentence, step outside and find the pavement waiting; we all agree that a prison sentence must never become a sentence to homelessness. But delivering that aspiration in practice is an intractable and complex problem. Partnership between prisons, probation and local housing authorities is essential, but it is not sufficient. The voluntary sector plays a vital role. So many of us are going to refer to different voluntary sector projects. The Clink is quite remarkable, and I must quickly declare my interest as I think my firm once found one of the chief executives, and I got to know them extremely well. The voluntary sector can act flexibly and swiftly to provide innovative solutions. The voluntary sector can sometimes take steps that are unpopular with the public, whom, if you are an elected body, you have unfortunately to satisfy. The official figures should disturb us...
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for bringing this topic to our attention today, and I pay tribute to him for his tireless work in this area of concern. It is an honour to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley. The north-east, where I live, offers both encouragement and challenge to the theme of our debate today. HMP Northumberland, Northumberland County Council, the probation services and voluntary organisations, which we have already heard quite a lot about, have developed strong partnerships to improve resettlement. Those partnerships deserve recognition, but they also raise the important question of how we are assessing their effectiveness. Success should not be measured simply by whether a referral has been made or a duty fulfilled. It should be measured by outcomes. As other noble Lords have asked, did someone leave prison with suitable accommodation? Were they still housed weeks and months later? Did they avoid rough sleeping? Were they able to access healthcare, treatment for substance misuse and, where appropriate, employment and training? Those outcomes are closely connected. Homelessness rarely exists in isolation. It intersects with poor mental health, addiction, unemployment and social exclusion. Nacro’s recent report, Reducing Deaths Among Prison Leavers , reminds us of the human consequences. It found that people released from prison in the north-east are around six times more likely to die from a drug-related cause within two weeks...
Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames
My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for securing this debate on a very serious issue that involves a very real tragedy. We have heard that every month about 1,000 prisoners are released from prison directly into homelessness. The Question from the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, appears to start from the proposition that early release is an important contributor to homelessness. It may be, but I am not sure we have the evidence on that issue. We do know, however, that any release into homelessness has a very severe impact on released prisoners achieving reintegration. Indeed, it is almost self-evident that they will not, and the stark evidence that there is calls into question our whole strategy. As my noble friend Lady Bakewell pointed out, the risks of release without a home to go to, away from warmth and company-such as it is in prison-are severe. Prisoners on release risk mental health breakdown and relapse into alcohol or drug abuse, and their risks of reoffending are magnified. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester referred to the “cycle of reoffending”. The noble Baroness, Lady Gill, also reminded us of the cyclical issues that follow unplanned release. Worse still, the risks of self-harm and early suicide are seriously increased by homelessness and rough sleeping. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle emphasised the regional differences on that. The 31 May article in the Guardian by Jessica Murray, to which both the Library...
My Lords, like all other noble Lords, I am very grateful to my noble friend Lord Farmer for securing this important debate. I thank him for continuing to draw attention to the vital link between successful rehabilitation and stable accommodation. This issue sits at the intersection of housing and criminal justice. If we are serious about reducing reoffending, protecting the public and ensuring that people who have served their sentence can rebuild their lives, we must recognise that a safe and stable home is often the foundation upon which all other progress depends. A person leaving prison with nowhere to go is placed in an extremely difficult position. Without accommodation, it becomes harder to secure employment, maintain contact with the Probation Service, access healthcare or establish a stable routine. These challenges affect not only the individual but our communities and, ultimately, public safety. The Government’s own figures demonstrate the scale of the challenge. As many other noble Lords have said, in 2024-25 around 1,000 prisoners each month were released and found themselves sleeping rough on the night of release. That is a deeply concerning outcome, and it raises serious questions about how effectively services are working together to support people as they transition back into the community. This debate is not suggesting that the answer is simply to provide housing without expectation or responsibility. A Conservative approach is always to balance compassion...
My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for his Question, and for the opportunity to discuss these critical issues that are close to his and all our hearts. The noble Lord has long argued that, if people are to leave crime behind, we must make sure that support and stability, including a safe place to live, are waiting for them beyond the prison gates. I could not agree more. That does not just mean a bed and a roof, although that is important. It means much more than that: somewhere they can call home, feel safe, keep their belongings, receive a letter or register for a GP. Ultimately, it means somewhere they can start a new chapter in their lives. As the noble Lord, Lord Ashcombe, said, it is about dignity, stability, second chances and, above all, hope. The evidence is clear. People released from prison without stable accommodation are more than twice as likely to reoffend as those who do. On the question from a number of noble Lords about Friday releases, progress has been made. It is a lot better than it used to be, but we still need to do more. The more stable the prison population and the way we do our releases are, the better that will become. However, it should not surprise us that it is extraordinarily difficult to rebuild your life if you do not know where you will sleep each night. That is why accommodation is an essential foundation for rehabilitation, but it is out of reach for far too many and there are no quick or simple fixes. The first...