Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of trends in re-offending rates for people subject to a home detention curfew for the final part of their custodial sentence.

The proven reoffending rate for adults released from custody in 2017/18 and who reoffended within one year of their release was 47.6%. For offenders released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC), the reoffending rate was 23.0%.

The 2017/18 cohort has been chosen since this is the most recent cohort available where the reoffending data within a year (i.e. up to 2019) is not affected by the Covid 19 pandemic and associated court backlogs.

HDC has been operating well for over 20 years and provides a safe and effective way of managing the transition of suitable, lower-risk prisoners from custody to the community whilst maintaining restrictions on their liberty through the use of an electronically monitored curfew – ‘tagging’. Offenders released on HDC face strict eligibility requirements and a risk assessment process, which seek to select cases which are suitable because they can be safely managed in the community and have a lower likelihood of reoffending. We are seeking to expand the benefits of HDC for suitable prisoners whilst ensuring that public protection remains the overriding priority.