§ Baroness Scotland of AsthalThe Home Office has today published two online national statistics reports on reconviction rates, which are the basis for measuring progress against its 2002 public service agreement target, to reduce reoffending for young offenders and for adult offenders by 5 per cent by 2005–06.
46WSThe results are:
- for juveniles, a reduction in reconvictions of 4.5 per cent for those dealt with in 2001 and 3.6 per cent for 2002, both as compared to 2000;
- for adults, a 1.8 per cent reduction for those starting a community sentence or discharged from custody in 2001, compared to 2000.
Both of these are encouraging and demonstrate that we are on course to meet our PSA target.
The juvenile report includes a correction of figures published in 2003 in Home Office Online Report 18/03. That report indicated that 2001 figures showed a 22.5 per cent reduction in reconvictions compared to 1997. As a result of an internal review of the methodology for calculating these figures, errors were identified and we commissioned an independent peer review, which confirmed the methodology used. The corrected figure for the fall in reconvictions between 1997 and 2001 is 7 per cent. Although lower than the previously published figure, this is nevertheless very significant progress.