Reoffending has significant costs to society. This includes direct financial losses to victims and the costs that the criminal justice system must meet, from running police investigations and court hearings, to holding offenders in prisons and ensuring their effective supervision in the community. In 2019, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) estimated that reoffending across all adult offenders identified in 2016 had cost society £16.7 billion (in 2017-18 prices).
Prison leavers are more likely to reoffend if they are not resettled into the community, for example if they have nowhere to live, no job or other income, and have poor continuity of healthcare. HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and its partners aim to minimise the risk of this through their resettlement work.
Based on the National Audit Office (NAO) report Improving resettlement support for prison leavers to reduce reoffending the Committee will question Antonia Romeo, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and officials from HM Prison and Probation Service.
Commenting on the NAO report, Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, said: “Reducing reoffending matters to us all. Too many prison leavers reoffend after their release, which causes harm to victims and costs the criminal justice system and wider society dearly. Severe staff shortages and high workloads mean that government is not consistently getting the basics right to help prison leavers’ resettlement.
“HM Prison and Probation Service has launched new initiatives in housing and employment to help prisoners resettle. However, it must improve its understanding of what works so it can ensure these initiatives are making a real difference for the £550 million of taxpayers’ money it is investing.”
If you have evidence on these issues, please submit it here by 23:59 on Sunday 28 May.
Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere.