Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of community sentencing in reducing reoffending.

There is evidence that community orders and suspended sentence orders are more effective at reducing reoffending than sentences of immediate custody in certain circumstances.

Robust analysis (using a matched comparison group to account for cohort differences such as drug use and unemployment), found that custodial sentences of less than 12 months were associated with higher reoffending rates (4 percentage points difference) compared to court orders (community or suspended sentence): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d1c732ee5274a08cdbe45c4/impact-short-custodial-sentences.pdf.

The Department’s latest published reoffending data (July to September 2023) shows that the one year proven reoffending rate for those on a court order was 34% and 62% for those released from a determinant sentence of less than 12 months: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-july-and-september-2023.

Ministry of Justice research findings indicate that individuals sentenced with a Community Sentence Treatment Requirement reoffend less often compared with those given a short custodial sentence. For example, Mental Health Treatment Requirements recipients had a lower reoffending rate than those on a short custodial sentence recipients by 9 percentage points.

We welcome the Independent Sentencing Review’s emphasis on increasing the use of community sentences for lower-level offenders, ensuring that prisons are focused on locking up the most dangerous offenders.

In the Sentencing Bill, we have introduced new powers to allow the courts to have greater flexibility than ever before to tailor punishments to offenders and ensure sentences served in the community are not a “soft option” but represent a genuine punishment by restricting offenders’ freedoms.

These new powers will include banning offenders from driving, from attending pubs and bars, as well as public events such as sports and concerts. We are also introducing tough new restriction zones that will limit offenders to a specific geographical area.