§ Mr. RiddickTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the reoffending rate of those who have(a) served prison sentences, (b) served probation orders and (c) served community sentences for the last five years for which figures are available.
§ Mr. MacleanThe available information on reconviction rates for standard list offences is given in the table. Reconviction rates during the two-year period after prison discharge for discharges in the years 1984 to 1986 were published in the issues for 1987 to 1989 of "Prison Statistics England and Wales". The 1987 results in the table are based on an improved methodology and the results for earlier years are not consistent with them. Results for 1988 are not yet available.
Reconviction rates for the two-year period after commencement of probation orders and community service orders in 1988 were given in "Probation Statistics England and Wales 1992", chapter 13. Results for 1987 are given in the table.
Reconviction rates are not available for the previous three years.
Copies of these publications are available in the Library of the House.
These results are shown: 571W
Persons reconvicted of a standard list1 offence within two years of commencement of a probation order or community service order or within two years of discharge from a prison service establishment Percentages Year of commencement All Males Females After commencement of probation order 1987 52 56 37 1988 51 55 35 After commencement of community sentence 1987 54 55 41 1988 53 53 50 After discharge from prison Year of discharge 21984 54 55 34 21985 52 53 34 21986 50 50 34 1987 57 57 40 1 Standard list offence as defined in "Criminal Statistics" England and Wales 1990, Cm. 1935; covers all indictable offences and a few more serious summary offences. 2 Figures prior to 1987 are based on a different methodology including microfiche based matching which resulted in lower reconviction rates by some 5 or 6 percentage points.