Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill

Crisis is the national charity for people experiencing homelessness. We help people directly out of homelessness and campaign for the changes needed to solve it altogether. We work across England, Scotland and Wales.

We know that homelessness is not inevitable, and we know that together, we can end it. Crisis is dedicated to ending homelessness by delivering life-changing services and campaigning for change.

Spending time in prison increases the risk of homelessness, and lack of stable accommodation can increase the risk of (re-)offending. This can lead to a self-perpetuating negative cycle, with repeated episodes of homelessness and imprisonment. The policy memorandum highlights that 7.5% of those arriving in prison have no fixed address, up from 4.4% ten years ago.

The most recent available figures from Scottish Prison Service (SPS, from 2013-14) showed 9,775 liberations from prison sentences in a year, with an additional 8,033 released from remand. A 2017 survey by Scottish Prison Service showed that 49% of prisoners reported losing their accommodation while in prison. This is consistent with other research, finding both pre- and post-release support for prisoners to be far from perfect, with many people still being released straight into homelessness.

1,822 homeless applications were recorded as having been made to Scottish local authorities from people leaving prison in 2018/19. This represents 5.0% of total homeless applications. However, put alongside the above information from SPS, it is likely that this figure does not represent the full scale of the problem.

Recent analysis suggests 29% of those in prison currently are on remand, and a third are there for longer than 140 days. Housing benefit will be paid for up to 52 weeks for someone on remand as long as they are likely to be on remand for less than a year. If someone is likely to be in prison for longer than 13 weeks (91 days), or on remand for longer than 52 weeks, housing benefit will not be paid. So someone likely to be remanded or in prison for a long times is at high risk of accruing rent arrears or losing their home altogether.

CASE STUDY: Crisis Skylight Edinburgh worked with an elderly man who became homeless as a result of being on remand. He had previously had a stable social tenancy, but was placed in custody on remand for a considerable length of time. At trial, he was found not guilty and released. The result of this period of remand was that he lost his home of 30 years and became homeless. His support worker says “He had no support or advice around this and has lost his entire life”.

Crisis strongly supports the principles in this bill.

Research has established that securing adequate housing for prison leavers can significantly reduce re-offending.

While finding and sustaining accommodation can be problematic for anyone leaving prison, evidence has highlighted four groups that face particular barriers: remand prisoners and those on very short-term sentences , women , young people , and those who were homeless on entering prison .

Therefore we strongly welcome the approach to reducing the use of remand and more effective pre-release planning.

Crisis believes that better planning of release, and less reliance on short term prison sentences and remand is likely to mean fewer people lose their homes while in prison and may help to break the cycle of homelessness and imprisonment. Scottish Government have consulted on and are planning to legislate for new duties to support the prevention of homelessness and the proposed changes in this bill would reinforce these policy intentions, and vice versa.

As discussed below, close working arrangements will be required between Scottish prisons and the various local authorities that prisoners are both coming from and returning to. This will be at the levels of planning for individual prisoners, operational and strategic partnership working, and should be supported by clear guidance. We recognise that these cross-boundary working arrangements can be extremely challenging and we welcome the progress that has been made by Scottish Prison Service and its partners on sharing information about new prisoners and those being released in the near future.

We support this proposal. Justice workers may be able to contribute valuable information relevant to the decision, including regarding the impact of bail or remand on the stability of someone's living and housing arrangements. Stability of housing should be considered as part of the bail decision, not least to avoid a cycle of homelessness and offending.

Crisis welcomes this proposal. Too often people are released on a Friday and do not have time to access all the support they need, such as the Jobcentre, homelessness service and foodbank provision, before services close for the weekend, especially as these often close early on a Friday. While these changes may mean other days become more pressured, the proposals for requiring early release planning, combined with other proposals to ensure that local authorities support people with a risk of homelessness up to six months prior to that risk, should facilitate better processes to alleviate these pressures.

Crisis strongly welcomes this proposal. This is in line with similar proposals which seek to prevent homelessness at an earlier stage, including for those facing remand and prison sentences. Scottish Government has committed to legislating during this parliamentary year to prevent homelessness which is likely to occur within the next six months through a forthcoming housing bill. In the case of people being released from prison this would mean that assistance is to be made available up to six months prior to release from prison, supported through a Personal Housing Plan.

As discussed below, planning for the release of a prisoner should start from the very beginning of a prison sentence or period of remand, as there may be opportunities to intervene in housing at that point, which could ensure housing remains available upon release.

Close working between housing and prison services is necessary to make sure that people leaving prison have somewhere to live on release and the cycle of prison and homelessness is broken, and we believe this needs to be underpinned by legal duties to ensure that people get this support and do not fall through gaps between services. Release plans should be jointly developed with relevant services so that as far as possible there is a single, co-ordinated planning process in place for each individual.

Consideration will need to be given to how this works, given that people may be released from prison to a wide range of local authority areas with different arrangements. We strongly welcome the arrangements developed between local authorities and the Scottish Prison Service to share information on people being released from prison imminently. To work alongside the 6 month homelessness prevention proposals, this information will need to be shared at an earlier stage, and we recommend that there is clear guidance on how to develop joint planning arrangements across prison and other services for individuals requiring a range of inputs.

We welcome minimum standards for throughcare. We would strongly urge that housing and support for housing sustainability (such as tenancy management skills, benefits and budgeting advice etc) be a core aspect of these standards.

Housing advice at the start of a period of custody is particularly important, when there may be a range of opportunities to intervene in someone’s housing situation, such as informing the housing provider, transferring the tenancy or benefit payment to a partner, or making alternative arrangements such as a housing association putting the person’s belongings into storage and using the property as temporary accommodation.

For people with complex histories who are approaching release, including histories of trauma or adverse childhood experiences, there should be psychologically-informed case management processes in place to co-ordinate support around the individual and provide a single, trusted point of contact to support them through the transition out of prison and beyond. This should be supported with clear guidance for all services involved for managing individual journeys and developing operational and strategic partnership and planning arrangements.