Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and which offences were committed by people on a suspended sentence order in each of the last three years.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The below detail is provided as background information.

A 2019 Ministry of Justice analysis of a matched cohort of over 30,000 offenders shows that those who serve sentences of immediate custody of less than 12 months reoffend at a rate higher than similar offenders given community orders and suspended sentence orders by the courts.

Our latest quarterly statistics, January – March 2022, suggest that 55.5% of people given a custodial sentence of less than 12 months reoffend within one year. For offenders punished with suspended sentence orders with requirements that are served in the community, the reoffending rate is significantly lower at 24.2%.

Based on this evidence, the Government introduced the presumption to suspend short sentences as part of the Sentencing Bill, currently before Parliament. The courts will retain a wide discretion to impose immediate custody in many circumstances.

Offenders will then serve their sentence in the community. When the court imposes a suspended sentence, they can impose requirements on the offender and the sentencing framework provides a flexible range of requirements, such as unpaid work, drug and alcohol treatment, curfew, and electronic monitoring, with the intention of punishing the offender, providing reparation to the community, and addressing any criminogenic or rehabilitative needs of the offender which may otherwise increase the likelihood of their reoffending.