Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June to Question 54053 on Home Detention Curfew Breaches; how many of the offenders who were recalled for breaching their curfew were returned to prison for the remainder of their original sentence.

Offenders who are recalled to custody solely for a breach of the curfew conditions of their HDC licence must serve the remainder of their custodial term before being released after they have reached their automatic release date at the half-way point of the sentence.

Offenders who are on HDC and recalled to custody for breach of the other conditions attached to their licence by, for example, failing to comply with probation supervision or commiting an offence, may be dealt with by a “standard” or fixed-term recall, depending on the circumstances. In cases where the Secretary of State is not satisfied that the offender may be safely released at the end of the fixed term period, they will be given a standard recall and will be required to remain in custody until the end of the sentence, unless released earlier by the Parole Board or Secretary of State. Offenders on HDC who are given a fixed-term recall of 14 days (for sentences under 12 months) or 28 days will be released after the fixed-term has been served, or at the automatic release date, whichever is later.

It is not possible readily to show the number of offenders on HDC throughout each month and, therefore, the proportion of those who were reported for a potential breach. The table below gives the number of people on HDC at the end of each month of 2019 plus the total number of reports of potential breach of the curfew related conditions of HDC licences received from the electronic monitoring provider each month.

HDC Caseload and Reports of potential breach of curfew 2019 by month

1.The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

2. This table includes the number of prisoners on HDC at a fixed point each month and not the total number of offenders who have been on HDC at some point during the month.

3. This table includes the total number of reports received each month and not the total number of offenders reported for potential breach each month. Some will be reported for potential breach on more than one occasion across months.