Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders breached the terms of their community order in each of the last five years.

We are investing £155 million in funding each year into the Service and recruited over 4000 new probation officers since reunification of the Probation Service in 2021 to deliver better and more consistent supervision of offenders in the community.

Delivering public protection and cutting crime is not just about custody. There is persuasive evidence that suspended and community sentences are more effective than short custodial sentences in reducing reoffending and promoting rehabilitation. These sentences can include a range of robust requirements to punish the offender, protect the public and deliver rehabilitation. Electronic monitoring of curfews, exclusion zones, attendance at appointments, location monitoring and alcohol bans are all available requirements which the courts can use. To make sure that offenders are visibly and publicly making reparations for their crimes, courts can impose up to 300 hours of unpaid work.

Any breach of these requirements could see them returned to court and face immediate custody.

Please note that where there is a significant risk of harm to an individual or where the offender has breached an order of the court, the courts will retain full discretion to impose a sentence of immediate custody.

Please see attachment for the information requested.

Data sources and quality

The figures in this table have been drawn from the Delius case management system which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Source: Offender Mangement Statistics Quarterly Bulletin: October to December 2023