§ 20. Dr. Michael ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of community service as a sentence.
§ Mr. John PattenThe introduction in 1989 of monitored national standards for the operation of community service orders has successfully promoted a higher use of the orders by the courts. In 1990—the first full year of operation and the most recent for which figures are available—the number of people who began a community service order was 37,490. This was 10 per cent. more than in 1989 and without any reduction in the proportion of offenders—36 per cent.—who had previously been in custody.