Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:52 pm on 23 October 2018.
It is complicated. But what we know now is that we are seeing real progress, again, as the Cabinet Secretary has briefly outlined, and what we need to do is to strengthen that, I think, and quicken the pace.
I would just like to say a little bit, Dirprwy Lywydd, in terms of the issues around homelessness and making sure that when people are released from custody, they do know where they're going to be spending the night. As the Cabinet Secretary rightly said earlier, this isn't always the case. It's pretty obvious, isn't it, that if people are not being released into secure and adequate accommodation, they might quickly fall into reoffending. What we're about and should be about is preventing that.
The report that the committee that I chair, the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee report, 'Life on the streets: preventing and tackling rough sleeping in Wales', made some pertinent recommendations. One was about giving automatic priority need to prison leavers, if we do not, in fact, abolish priority need altogether. And the other one was about re-establishing that prisoner accommodation and resettlement working group, and making sure that the national pathway—again, referred to by the Cabinet Secretary—works as well as it possibly can. So, the Government response set out further work that was taking place and further research. I don't necessarily expect the Cabinet Secretary to have all the answers here today as to where we are with that work at the current time, Dirprwy Lywydd. But I would appreciate, as quickly as possible, perhaps in consultation with colleagues, hearing what has happened and what stage that process is at the current time, because I do think it's very, very important as one part of the overall picture that prison leavers—particularly, I know there are challenges for those serving short sentences—but all prison leavers have secure, adequate accommodation, and, of course, the services that can go around that, in place as soon as they come out of prison.