Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) convicted of theft from a shop and (b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, broken down by (i) year of conviction in each of the past five years, and (ii) the number of previous occasions the offender had been convicted of theft from a shop.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The data requested are provided in the attached excel tables. The tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a child sex offence who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence by number of previous occasions where the offender was convicted of a child sex offence.
- The number of offenders who were convicted of an indictable offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions (between 7-10 previous convictions).
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a theft offence who did not receive immediate custody, by number of previous convictions (between 3-10 previous convictions).
- The number of offenders convicted of theft from a shop who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence by number of previous convictions for the same offence.
As set out in previous responses, this data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 109199, how many unique offenders were convicted for a theft offence and did not receive immediate custody in 2024 with 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 previous convictions for a theft offence, broken down by individual number of previous convictions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The data requested are provided in the attached excel tables. The tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a child sex offence who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence by number of previous occasions where the offender was convicted of a child sex offence.
- The number of offenders who were convicted of an indictable offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions (between 7-10 previous convictions).
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a theft offence who did not receive immediate custody, by number of previous convictions (between 3-10 previous convictions).
- The number of offenders convicted of theft from a shop who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence by number of previous convictions for the same offence.
As set out in previous responses, this data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were a) convicted for child sexual offences and b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by year of conviction and number of previous occasions the offender has been convicted for child sexual offences for the period 2020-2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The data requested are provided in the attached excel tables. The tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a child sex offence who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence by number of previous occasions where the offender was convicted of a child sex offence.
- The number of offenders who were convicted of an indictable offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions (between 7-10 previous convictions).
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a theft offence who did not receive immediate custody, by number of previous convictions (between 3-10 previous convictions).
- The number of offenders convicted of theft from a shop who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence by number of previous convictions for the same offence.
As set out in previous responses, this data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Answer of 6 February 2026 to Question 109201, how many unique offenders were convicted for an indictable offence and did not receive immediate custody in 2024 with 7, 8, 9 and 10 previous convictions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The data requested are provided in the attached excel tables. The tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a child sex offence who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence by number of previous occasions where the offender was convicted of a child sex offence.
- The number of offenders who were convicted of an indictable offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions (between 7-10 previous convictions).
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a theft offence who did not receive immediate custody, by number of previous convictions (between 3-10 previous convictions).
- The number of offenders convicted of theft from a shop who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence by number of previous convictions for the same offence.
As set out in previous responses, this data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were convicted of murdering a police officer by year of conviction for the period 2020-2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for a wide range of offences, including murder in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK.
It is not possible to identify individual characteristics of murder victims, including their profession. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat - Frome and East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of the use of enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks in roles where such checks are not legally required on (a) access to employment and (b) reoffending rates, particularly for people with historic conviction.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The criminal record regime aims to strike a balance between providing employers with the information they need to make safer recruitment decisions, while enabling ex-offenders to rebuild their lives. This is why Enhanced DBS checks are intended for roles involving a high degree of public trust or specific safeguarding responsibilities—including work with children or vulnerable adults. The roles and activities that are eligible for enhanced criminal record checks are set out in legislation.
We recognise that disclosure of a criminal record can have a significant impact on an individual’s employment opportunities and ability to reintegrate into society, and we are committed to helping those people to overcome barriers and turn away from reoffending. This includes having introduced Regional Employment Councils, which bring together prisons, probation and the Department of Work and Pensions along with businesses, to help support people with convictions out into the community.
The Deputy Prime Minister also confirmed that the Government will consider opportunities to simplify the criminal records regime to ensure it is clear and proportionate, particularly in relation to childhood offences. The Home Office and Ministry of Justice are working together to consider next steps.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of prison recalls following implementation of the Sentencing Act 2026.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Further work is underway to understand how best we can support practitioners in safely managing risk in the community. This will inform future options to ensure recall continues to be used proportionately, to support both public protection and rehabilitation.
We are also looking at our approach to recall across the prison estate, including how the 56-day recall period can be used more purposefully in custody, alongside gathering learning from regional initiatives to safely reduce recalls and strengthen pre-release and release-day support. This work will support our cross-government commitment to halve the proportion of offenders on probation who become homeless on their first night out of prison; and shape future options for a more consistent, end-to-end, and evidence-based approach to recall across the estate.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to issue updated guidance on the use of recall in line with the recommendations of the Independent Sentence Review.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government accepted the Independent Sentencing Review’s recommendations on recall in principle. Further work is underway within the Department to consider how these recommendations should be implemented in practice, including decisions on whether it is appropriate to update guidance on the use of recall. These decisions will be taken over the coming months as part of our wider work to ensure that recall is used proportionately and supports both public protection and rehabilitation.
Asked by: Jessica Toale (Labour - Bournemouth West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of systemic factors such as housing, mental health and employment on fixed term recalls.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Department recognises that systemic factors such as access to stable housing, mental‑health support and employment opportunities all play an important role in people’s ability to comply with licence conditions and avoid recall. We continue to work to improve support in these areas, for example by working to embed strong joint partnership working between prisons, probation, and across Government to improve accommodation outcomes for prison leavers.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that heating failures on the secure estate are fixed promptly.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We continue to work with prison Governors to ensure appropriate contingency measures are in place to mitigate the impact of heating and hot water systems at a prison becoming inoperative.
Contingency plans are in place with the Ministry of Justice’s Facilities Management providers to enable them to respond to any incidents that impact upon heating, hot water, or loss of critical services to site as a priority and these plans are regularly reviewed.