Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the reoffending rate for prisoners who serve custodial sentences of (a) less than 12 months, (b) between 12 months and two years and (c) more than two years.

The latest re-offending rates available were published on 30 October 2014 in the ‘Proven Re-offending Statistics Quarterly Bulletin’ at the link below: www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-january-2012-to-december-2012

This gives re-offending figures for adult and juvenile offenders, including those released from custody, between January and December 2012. The figures given below are taken or derived from table 19a of this publication.

For adult offenders who were released from serving a custodial sentence of less than 12 months in 2012 the proven re-offending rate was 57.6%, for those released from serving a sentence of between 12 months and less than two years the proven re-offending rate was 37.5%, and for those released from serving a sentence of two years or more (including determinate and indeterminate sentences) the proven re-offending rate was 31.1%.

The Government is undertaking the Transforming Rehabilitation Reforms to reduce re-offending, particularly among short-sentenced offenders. The Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014, which received Royal Assent on 13 March will, once commenced, change the law so that all offenders released from short prison sentences will receive 12 months of supervision in the community.

We will introduce the provisions of the Act and transition services to new providers in line with the Government’s commitment to complete these reforms by 2015.