Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how frequently prison recall data for the licence period and the new supervision period will be published; and whether such data will be recorded and published separately for Essex.

Statistics on offenders recalled and returned to custody are published quarterly in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) bulletin. In accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics dates for future releases of this bulletin have been pre-announced in the Department’s statistical publication schedule. This is available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/statistics

As part of the latest release of OMSQ, my Department published a consultation document and set of statistical tables proposing how this information on recalls could be presented in the future. These new tables aim to ensure that the changes this Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme have made in this area can be monitored. These documents are available online at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2014

The proposed set of statistical tables do not currently include a separate breakdown for Essex. I have asked my officials to consider this request, alongside other consultation responses, as they develop the final tables that will be included with the next edition of Offender Management Statistics Quarterly which is due to be published on 30 April 2015.