Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders who received a community sentence in each of the last five years had previously received (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four, (e) five or more community sentences.

In many cases – particularly for lower-level offending – there is persuasive evidence that sentences served in the community, are more effective than short custodial sentences in reducing reoffending and rehabilitation in certain circumstances.

The Department’s statistics 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 sentence in the community (community order or suspended sentence order): Proven reoffending statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The information requested is provided in the table attached. The information supplied has been sourced from a retrieval from the Police National Computer database.