§ 20. Mr. AingerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he plans to improve public confidence in community sentences. [24632]
§ Ms QuinThe Crime and Disorder Bill contains proposals which will both increase the range of community sentences available to the courts and create a new framework for the effective supervision of community sentences imposed on juvenile offenders. We are looking to the probation service both to improve its enforcement of community sentences and implement the forthcoming guidance from her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation about supervision programmes which are effective in reducing repeat offending. We are also looking to the Comprehensive Spending Review, which is now in progress, and the prisons/probation review, in particular, to identity further measures to strengthen the credibility of community sentences as effective and demanding forms of punishment.