Reoffenders

(asked on 31st January 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people given a life sentence subsequently committed a serious further offence in each year since 2010.


Answered by
Damian Hinds Portrait
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 3rd February 2023

The table below sets out the total number of offenders who committed (that is, who were convicted of) a serious further offence (SFO), having previously been sentenced to life imprisonment, for notifications submitted to the National Offender Management Service/HM Prison and Probation Service between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2014.

Any data on SFOs held centrally prior to 2010 reflected the definition of SFO at the time and relied on such information as was recorded by local probation trusts being shared with the Ministry of Justice. In 2009/10 the Ministry of Justice established an electronic case management system, which enabled reliable SFO data to be collated centrally for the first time. Once the quality checks which are required for any publication were undertaken, the Ministry of Justice was eventually in a position to publish SFO numbers, to promote transparency and improve accountability.

Year of SFO notification

Number of offenders convicted of an SFO who had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment

2010/11

4

2011/12

2

2012/13

0

2013/14

7

1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.

2. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.

3. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

The latest figures for 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2021 were published in October 2022 and can be accessed by the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-october-to-december-2020.

Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit a serious further offence, but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.

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