§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to allocate additional resources to treatment programmes for sex offenders, with special reference to offenders who are on short sentences and are released from prison without community supervision. [15476]
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§ Ms Quin[holding answer 13 November 1997]The Prison Service has made available in the current financial year an additional £1 million in support of offending behaviour programmes, including sex offender treatment programmes.
There are no plans at present to devote additional Prison Service resources to programmes aimed at sex offenders sentenced to short terms of imprisonment because they would not be in prison for long enough after sentencing for them to complete a meaningful programme.
The Government intend to include provisions in the Crime and Disorder Bill to give the courts power to impose extended periods of post-release supervision on sex-offenders, including those who receive sentences of 12 months or less. The Government acknowledge that these proposals will have resource implications for probation services.