§ Mr. Beithasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he now expects courts in the Alnwick and Berwick areas will be in a position to make community service orders.
§ Mr. JohnIt will be for the Northumbria Probation and After-Care Committee to decide, in the light of the implications for probation expenditure of the rate support grant settlement for 1977–78, when it will be possible to extend community service arrangements to these areas.
§ Mr. Carlisleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many probation areas schemes of community service are still not available to all the courts in the area.
§ Mr. JohnCommunity service arrangements do not yet exist in parts of 26 probation areas and in the whole of three others.
§ Mr. Carlisleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many community service orders were made in the first six months of 1976 by (a) Crown courts and (b) magistrates' courts;
(2) how many community service orders were made during the most recent six months for which figures are available, by (a) Crown courts and (b) magistrates' courts.
338W
§ Mr. John1975 is the latest period for which figures are readily available from criminal statistics, and then only for the calendar year. These figures show that in England and Wales the number of persons in 1975 given a community service order for the principal offence dealt with at a court appearance was 764 by the Crown Court and 2,362 by magistrates' courts.
As regards more recent figures, it has been estimated from four-monthly returns made by probation and after-care areas that the number of persons given a community service order for any offences in the eight months 1st December 1975–31st July 1976 was 1,454 by the Crown Court and 4,215 by magistrates' courts.
§ Mr. Carlisleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for extending schemes of community service to those parts of the country in which they are not at present available.
§ Mr. JohnIt is for probation and after-care committees to consider how far it is possible to introduce or extend community service arrangements in their areas within the limits of the resources available to them. In present circumstances additional resources cannot be provided, but I hope that the committees concerned will make these arrangements wherever they can by reallocation of staff.