Speeches by Munt.

“Go on, then—there is the Serco thing, the 8,000 to 14,000 and HMPPS. The other thing that I wanted to ask you about on this particular matter was tagging offenders at source, in the pilot taking place in six prisons. Is that going to work, and can it be rolled out in all prisons? Is that a good thing—to save that gap b…”

“My constituent Ben has a friend who is in HMP Stocken, and he tells me that family and friends have been banned from sending books into the prison for several months. Can the Leader of the House ask his colleagues in the Ministry of Justice about the guidelines? I understand that they say that friends and families can …”

“It is not related.”

“Can I stress test that a bit? Is that where somebody has come from area A and they have returned to area A and lost their accommodation? It might have been social housing or whatever. Is that what you are talking about, where somebody has come back into their own area and they are not able to pick up on their accommoda…”

“Indeed; I was going to ask you about that next.”

“Is the situation different, or maybe the statistics are different, for women coming out of prison? Is there a difference, or does everybody get treated equally?”

“Yes.”

“Everything that I was going to ask has probably been covered by other people while I was out of the room, I suspect, so I will allow you to move on, Chair.”

“Thank you very much. I just wondered whether we were all working at cross-purposes in different areas and doing all sorts of different things in different schemes.”

“Hello. I am Tessa Munt. I am the Member of Parliament for Wells and Mendip Hills, in Somerset. I should point out that everything is written up in my declaration of interests, but I am also the vice-chair and a director of WhistleblowersUK, a non-profit-making organisation. I am the vice-chair of the APPG on penal affa…”

“That is fine; don’t worry.”

“On a technicality, I think you said that you work in 12 regions.”

“I am intrigued, because I thought there were nine regions in England, so maybe I missed something.”

“Oh, do they?”

“Do any of the other witnesses have any comment to make about that?”

“Can you expand on that a little?”

“When women have children and they are reunited with their family perhaps, does different stuff come into play?”

“Okay. I noticed that you, Andrew, were nodding a little more vigorously.”

“I want to look at your experience of the other end, if you like, where local authorities offer incentives to private landlords and accommodation for ex-offenders through local authorities and other Government support that might be available. How do you feel that is working in reality?”

“That would be helpful. Could you elucidate on some of the barriers faced by people who are trying to access something in the way of more long-term housing? You have identified some things. Looking at that, whether it is social housing, supported housing, or private rented accommodation, I recognise there is heat in the…”