Rehabilitation: Offenders

(asked on 10th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason all accredited programmes run by (a) prisons and (b) the Probation Service have not been subject to an impact and outcome evaluation.


Answered by
Robert Buckland Portrait
Robert Buckland
This question was answered on 13th June 2019

The Department has undertaken several outcome evaluations of accredited offending behaviour programmes, and further evaluations are currently underway. In 2018 we invested in new resources to address the backlog in evaluations. Impact evaluations may not be suitable for all accredited programmes due to the low volume of participants. In these circumstances other types of evaluations are undertaken, for example studies to assess whether delivery is in line with the evidence.

All accredited programmes are assessed against a set of principles which are drawn from the evidence base about what works and considered against the latest thinking internationally. All programmes are subject to evaluation, but this can take many years due to the sample sizes required to meet academic standards.

It is the Secretary of State’s policy to make accredited offending behaviour programmes available to people convicted of crime. An evaluation plan must be submitted in order to achieve initial accreditation and the evaluation results must be provided to achieve reaccreditation (usually after 5 years). Accreditation also requires that the programme is designed based on the best available evidence, and that robust monitoring of practice is in place.

Research has shown that HMPPS programmes, when properly targeted, can reduce reoffending by 8 percentage points, and up to 17 percentage points for violent offenders.

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