Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) starts and (b) completions there have been for the (i) offender behaviour, (ii) sex offender, (iii) substance misuse, (iv) domestic violence and (v) extremism programmes in each year since 2010.

The starts and completions for accredited programmes delivered in custody between March 2010 and March 2023 for (i) offender behaviour, (ii) sex offender, (iii) substance misuse, (iv) domestic violence and (v) extremism programmes are provided in figures 3.1 and 3.2 in Prison Education and Accredited Programme Statistics 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Data for 2023-2024 will be published in the Prison Education and Accredited Programmes Statistics report on 26 September 2024.

In custody, the longer-term decrease in Accredited Programme starts and completions has been primarily driven by the change of programme ownership – and responsibility for running substance misuse accredited programmes - from HMPPS to NHS. As of 1 April 2011, local NHS partnerships assumed these responsibilities. The large decreases seen reflect the fact that more offenders are completing programmes run by the NHS, rather than HMPPS. There has also been a reinvestment from shorter, moderate intensity programmes in favour of longer, higher intensity programmes along with the introduction of some 1:1 programmes. This better reflects the identified demand across HMPPS prisons. The number of commissioned completions has therefore decreased although overall maintaining investment.

The starts and completions for accredited programmes delivered in the community from 2009-10 to 2014-15 for (i) offender behaviour, (ii) sex offender, (iii) substance misuse, (iv) domestic violence and (v) extremism programmes are published in the Accredited Programmes Bulletin at Tables 1.3 and 1.4 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/accredited-programmes-bulletin-2014-to-2015.

The information for April 2015-March 2023 is contained in the attached table. The information for starts can be found in table 1 and for completions in table 2.

We keep offending behaviour programmes under continual review, to ensure that they are effective in reducing reoffending and protecting the public.

We have also introduced a range of programmes designed specifically to address Sexual Offending, including one specifically tailored to non-contact internet offending.