§ Mr. Nigel EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convicted sex offenders have then gone on to offend once again after their release from prison in the last 10 years.
§ Mr. MacleanThe available information on the re-offending of prisoners is the reconviction rate for a "standard list" offence, as defined in appendix 4 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales 1992", within two or four years after discharge from a prison service establishment. The latest statistics are for those discharged in 1987 after completion of a prison sentence for which the principal offence was a sex offence. Of those discharged, 416 or 25 per cent. had been convicted of a further offence within two years and 540 or 32 per cent. within four years. The numbers exclude the reconviction of a small number of discharges whose criminal histories could not be traced.