Official Statistics

Offender accommodation outcomes - statistical summary

Published 31 July 2025

Applies to England and Wales

1. Introduction

This summary presents the main findings from the most recent ‘Offender accommodation outcomes’ publication.

The Probation Service is responsible for managing all offenders on a community sentence or licence following their release from prison in England and Wales.

There are 12 probation regions – 11 in England and one in Wales.

1.1 Operational context

In 2024/25 the Probation Service was under consistent pressure. To manage this, in April 2024, the Probation Service introduced a change in practice known as Probation Reset. Under Probation Reset, probation practitioner engagement is prioritised towards the first two-thirds of an individual’s sentence where intervention can have the most impact.

For eligible offenders, this suspends some sentence management contact for those on licence, post-sentence supervision, and those with rehabilitation activity requirements under community orders or suspended sentence orders. Although the reset will suspend some contact for eligible offenders, their orders and licences will remain active. See statistical guidance for further information on Probation Reset, including details on eligibility and exclusion criteria.

Both the pressure on probation, and the measures to address it, will vary by region but are likely to impact the performance measures presented.

2. Housed on release from custody

Housed means the prison leaver is in any settled or temporary accommodation. Housed does not include shelters, emergency hostels, campsites, squatting or rough sleeping. See statistical guidance for further definitions.

• In the year to March 2025, 84.0% of offenders were housed on the night following release from custody (excluding cases out of scope or where the status was unknown).^{Note 1}
• This is a decrease of 1.7 percentage points from 85.7% in the previous performance year.
• Accommodation outcomes on the night of release from custody have declined since the 2021/22 performance year.

Figure 1: Housed on release from custody, by performance year, April 2019 to March 2025, England and Wales
(Source: 2024/25 Housed release from custody data tables, Table 2)

2.1 Outcomes by region

• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, 3 regions saw an increase in the proportion of offenders housed on the night following release from custody compared to the previous performance year.
• The Wales probation region saw the largest increase in performance with 89.6% of offenders housed on the night following release, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from 87.7% in the previous performance year.
• The Kent Surrey Sussex probation region saw the largest decrease in performance with 82.3% of offenders housed on the night following release, a decrease of 7.1 percentage points from 89.4% in the previous performance year.

Figure 2: Housed on release from custody, by region, April 2024 to March 2025 compared to April 2023 to March 2024
(Source: 2024/25 Housed release from custody data tables, Table 3)

2.2 Outcomes by age

• Prison leavers aged between 18 to 24 had higher rates of settled accommodation at release from custody (52.5% for the 18 to 20 age group; 50.2% for the 21 to 24 age group).
• Prison leavers aged between 40 to 59 had higher rates of homelessness or rough sleeping at release from custody (18.5% for the 40 to 49 year olds, 17.2% for 50 to 59 year olds).

Figure 3: Proportion of offenders in settled accommodation and homeless or rough sleeping at release from custody, by age, April 2024 to March 2025
(Source: 2024/25 Housed on release from custody data tables, Table 5)

3. Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody for supervised cases

Settled accommodation is any accommodation that provides a permanent housing solution. See statistical guidance for further definitions.

• From May 2024 to March 2025, 80.6% of offenders were in settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody (excluding cases out of scope, eligible for Probation Reset, or where the status was unknown)^{Note 1}.
• In the year to March 2024, 73.5% of offenders were in settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody (excluding cases out of scope or where the status was unknown).
• These figures are not comparable. Due to the introduction of Probation Reset in April 2024, there is a break in the time series for accommodation at 3 months post release from custody. Under Probation Reset, supervision is suspended for eligible offenders. Consequently, some offenders who are on the probation caseload will not be in scope to measure their accommodation status at the 3-month post release from custody measurement point. See statistical guidance for further information on Probation Reset, including details on eligibility and exclusion criteria.

Figure 4: Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody, by performance year, April 2020 to March 2025, England and Wales
(Source: 2023/24 Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody data tables, Table 2; 2024/25 Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody data tables, Table 2)

3.1 Outcomes by region

• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, the Greater Manchester probation region saw the highest performance with 89.0% of offenders in settled accommodation 3 months post release.
• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, the North East probation region saw the lowest performance with 69.9% of offenders in settled accommodation 3 months post release.

Figure 5: Settled accommodation 3 months post release from custody for supervised cases, by region, May 2024 to March 2025 (Source: 2024/25 Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody data tables, Table 3b)

3.2 Outcomes by age

• Prison leavers aged between 18 to 24 had higher rates of settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody.
• Prison leavers aged between 30 to 59 had higher rates of homelessness or rough sleeping at 3 months post release from custody.

Figure 6: Proportion of offenders in settled accommodation and homeless or rough sleeping at 3 months post release from custody for supervised cases, by age, May 2024 to March 2025
(Source: 2024/25 Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody data tables, Table 5b)

4. Settled accommodation at 3 months post community disposal for supervised cases

Settled accommodation is any accommodation that provides a permanent housing solution. See statistical guidance for further definitions.

• From May 2024 to March 2025, 84.9% of those sentenced to a community order were in settled accommodation 3 months after starting their sentence (excluding cases out of scope, eligible for Probation Reset, or where the status was unknown)^{Note 1}.
• In the year to March 2024, 85.2% of those sentenced to a community order were in settled accommodation at 3 months after starting their sentence (excluding cases out of scope or where the status was unknown).
• These figures are not comparable. Due to the introduction of Probation Reset in April 2024, there is a break in the time series for accommodation at 3 months post community disposal. Under Probation Reset, supervision is suspended for eligible offenders. Consequently, some offenders who are on the probation caseload will not be in scope to measure their accommodation status at the 3-month post community disposal measurement point. See statistical guidance for further information on Probation Reset, including details on eligibility and exclusion criteria.

Figure 7: Settled accommodation at 3 months post community disposal, by performance year, April 2020 to March 2025, England and Wales
(Source: 2023/24 Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody data tables, Table 2; 2024/25 Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody data tables, Table 2)

4.1 Outcomes by region

• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, the Wales probation region saw the highest performance with 91.9% of offenders in settled accommodation 3 months after starting their community sentence.
• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, the North East probation region saw the lowest performance with 78.2% of offenders in settled accommodation 3 months after starting their community sentence.

Figure 8: Settled accommodation 3 months post community disposal for supervised cases, by region, May 2024 to March 2025
(Source: 2024/25 Settled accommodation at 3 months post community disposal data tables, Table 3b)

4.2 Outcomes by age

• Offenders in the age groups 18 to 20, 21 to 24, and 60 and over, had higher rates of settled accommodation 3 months after starting their community sentence.
• Offenders aged between 30 to 49 had higher rates of homelessness or rough sleeping 3 months after starting their community sentence.

Figure 9: Proportion of offenders in settled accommodation and homeless or rough sleeping at 3 months post community disposal for supervised cases, by age, May 2024 to March 2025
(Source: 2024/25 Settled accommodation at 3 months post community disposal data tables, Table 5b)

5. Further insights

5.1 Outcomes by sentence length

• Offender accommodation outcomes data show there is a relationship between custodial sentence length and accommodation rates.
• Offenders serving longer custodial sentences have better accommodation outcomes both at release, and at 3 months post release. Conversely, offenders on shorter sentences are shown to have worse accommodation outcomes.
• Similar findings between sentence length and outcomes have been observed in the 2024/25 Offender employment outcomes publication.

Figure 10: Offender accommodation outcomes by sentence length for custodial sentences*

 * Due to the introduction of Probation Reset in April 2024, there is a break in the time series for accommodation at 3 months post release from custody. Consequently, April 2024 data are based on MI015Ra, while data from May 2024 to March 2025 are based on the revised measure, MI015Sa. To maintain coherence in annual reporting, the period May 2024 to March 2025 has been presented as a full year in figure below. See statistical guidance for further information on Probation Reset.

(Source: 2024/25 Housed on release from custody data tables, Table 8; 2024/25 Settled accommodation at 3 months post release from custody data tables, Table 8b)

5.2 Other characteristics

There are differing levels of accommodation outcomes between groups across the characteristics of sex, ethnicity, and offence type, however, differences in cohort sizes should be considered when interpreting potential disproportionality.

• Higher accommodation rates are seen for males at 3 months post release from custody compared with females, while higher accommodation rates are seen for females sentenced to community orders when compared to males.
• Higher accommodation rates are seen for Asian or Asian British offenders across all accommodation measures compared with other ethnicity groups - at release from custody, 3 months post release from custody, and 3 months after starting a community sentence.
• There is high variation of accommodation rates between different offence types committed.

6. Further information

As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

• Offender accommodation outcomes – statistical guidance
• Offender accommodation outcomes – data tables

Enquiries about these statistics should be directed to:
E Stradling
Email: CrossCuttingPerformanceEnquiries@justice.gov.uk

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Note 1: Please refer to the statistical guidance document for full details on the inclusion and exclusion criteria for management information calculations.