Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make a comparative assessment of the effectiveness of (a) short custodial sentences and (b) sentences served in the community.

There is persuasive evidence that community orders and suspended sentence orders are more effective than sentences of immediate custody in reducing reoffending, in certain circumstances.

The department’s latest published reoffending statistics (Proven reoffending statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).) show that 55% of those released from prison after serving a custodial sentence of less than twelve months were convicted for a proven offence in the following 12 months. This compares to 32% of those serving a court order (community sentence or suspended sentence order) or 24% of those serving a suspended sentence with requirements served in the community.