Offenders Giving Back to Communities 2022-05-24
2022-05-24
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Direct Answer
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Context
Discussion about the need for offenders to give back to their communities after serving sentences.
What plans does he have to help ensure that offenders give back to their communities?
When people have broken the law, and when it is safe and proportionate for them to do so, they should serve their sentences in the community. We are investing £93 million in community payback staff over the next three years so that we can increase the number of hours worked to a record-breaking 8 million a year.
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Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
Discussion about the importance of community payback projects for ensuring visible justice in communities.
Justice needs to be seen to be done, not just for victims but for the wider community, so that they can be confident that offenders are not getting away with it. Community payback projects allow for offenders to make reparations to the communities whom they have harmed. Can my right hon. Friend assure me that he will be working to expand such projects across the country?
My hon. Friend is right: people do want to see justice being done, in a visible way, in their communities. I hope that he saw some of the 300-odd gangs of offenders who delivered about 10,000 hours of community work across the country, particularly on environmental schemes, during the recent Keep Britain Tidy spring clean-up week.
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Assessment & feedback
Commitment to expanding such projects
Working With Partners
Response accuracy
Q3
Direct Answer
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Context
Recognition of the partnership between Fonmon castle park and gardens, in the questioner's constituency, and HM Prison Parc.
Fonmon castle park and gardens, in my constituency, provides a first-class day out for visitors, but will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating those who run it on the partnership that they have established with HM Prison Parc? This offers new opportunities for offenders, while also resolving some of the labour shortages in the area.
I am, of course, happy to celebrate the success of Fonmon castle and its partnership with Parc prison. As my right hon. Friend knows, we believe that employment for offenders is critical to moving them into a better life. Building partnerships of that kind between businesses and prisons is key for the future, and I am pleased to tell my right hon. Friend that Parc prison is in line, in the next year, to have one of our new employment advisory boards.
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Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q4
Partial Answer
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Context
Discussion about the issue of homelessness faced by ex-offenders post-release.
Offenders are unlikely to be able to give back to their communities if they find themselves homeless on their release from prison, as I have discovered when supporting people in that situation in my own community. Will the Minister undertake to bring to the House a report indicating the extent to which homelessness among ex-offenders is a fact—which it clearly is—along with an action plan to help constituency Members in all parts of the House to support people when they leave prison so that they can lead a stable existence in their communities and therefore give back?
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that the provision of a home—of accommodation—for those leaving the secure estate is critical. We believe that there are three pillars to success: a job, a house and a friend to put people on to the straight and narrow.
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Assessment & feedback
Commitment to undertake report with action plan
Principles Without Specifics
Response accuracy
Q5
Partial Answer
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Context
Discussion about the backlog of up to 100,000 hours owed by offenders due to workload issues and staff shortages.
Unpaid work gives offenders a chance to give back to their communities, but huge workloads and staff shortages in the probation service mean that in some areas there is a backlog of up to 100,000 hours owed by offenders, and some have even had their hours wiped because they have not been completed in time. Is this not just another example of our broken justice system—a system that lets offenders off while victims pay the price? When will the Government get serious and fix this?
We are recruiting 500 new community supervisors so that we can get on top of some of the covid-related backlog in unpaid work. We have to hit 8 million hours and we have thousands of offenders out there in high-vis jackets doing the work, particularly environmental work with organisations such as the Canal & River Trust.
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Assessment & feedback
Concrete timeline for resolving backlog
Principles Without Specifics
Response accuracy