To ask the Minister of Justice to detail (i) the number of individuals leaving custody that were released without confirmed accommodation, in each of the last five years; and (ii) whether any assessment has been made of the impact of this on reoffending and community safety.

(i) The Prison Service Records Information System (PRISM) is used for the control and management of prisoners and records their latest address.

The information in the table below has been extracted from PRISM and details the number of prisoners released in each of the last five calendar years, along with the corresponding number and proportion recorded as having no fixed abode.

Source: PRISM – Management Information

Note: No fixed abode data is based on each prisoner’s latest recorded address on PRISM (data extracted on 27th January 2026)

(ii) Information on the number of people leaving custody who reoffend specifically due to a lack of secure accommodation is difficult to capture.

Whilst numbers of individuals who present to NIHE and apply for housing and homelessness assistance because they are leaving prison can be accessed, it is not possible to capture information for all those released from prison.

This is because the reason for homelessness is assessed by NIHE when an individual applies for homeless assistance: this assessment may have been completed prior to someone entering custody. Therefore, if an individual who has already been granted entitlement to homeless assistance by NIHE is released to no fixed abode, their reason for homelessness remains that of initial presentation.

In addition, individuals may not always disclose their full custodial history when requesting temporary accommodation and within the prison setting staff rely on individuals accurately self-reporting their housing situation, which makes it difficult to directly link accommodation outcomes with reoffending data.

Cross-government work is also progressing to develop a PfG-mandated strategy to reduce offending and reoffending. A Call for Views will shortly issue, which seeks views and evidence on factors that impact on reoffending, including stable housing. A Data Working Group has been established to develop a supporting Outcomes Measurement Framework that will assess the impact of a range of different actions on reoffending and community safety.