Question to the Ministry of Justice:

What steps the Government is taking to reduce reoffending rates for violent crimes.

Reoffending is costing society approximately £15bn per year. It is only through a concerted effort across Government that we will be able to reduce reoffending.

That is why we set up the Reducing Reoffending Board to identify how the Government can work more collaboratively in addressing the drivers of reoffending, and to consider innovative ways of addressing these drivers.

We are looking particularly closely at what we can do to strengthen probation, which is responsible for managing and supporting offenders in the community to turn away from crime. I want to see a wider range of rehabilitative programmes on offer, so that offenders can be directed towards programmes that are targeted to their behaviour.

For instance, we have found that our general offending behaviour programme can reduce violent reoffending by 17 percentage points.