Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce reoffending among people (a) released early on licence, (b) convicted and awaiting sentencing and (c) receiving community sentences.

This Government is driving down reoffending by investing in a wide range of rehabilitative interventions to help prison leavers, including those released early on licence, to secure accommodation, employment, and substance misuse treatment on release. The overall proven reoffending rate for England and Wales was 24.4% in 2020/21, down from 31.6% in 2010/11.

We are also focused on expanding resettlement support for those on remand, including through the provision of embedded pre-release teams in prisons and through the extension of Commissioned Rehabilitative Service contracts to include those on remand.

We have increased funding for the Probation Service by an additional £155m a year to recruit staff, bring down caseloads and deliver better supervision of offenders in the community. We continue to recruit at pace and have exceeded our recruitment targets for the last three years. This investment enables us to strengthen probation supervision which is shown to be an effective rehabilitation tool.