§ Mr. BeithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research his Department has undertaken on the level of the public's satisfaction with the use of community penalties; and if he will make a statement. [18637]
§ Ms Quin[holding answer 3 December 1997]: The Home Office has not itself recently undertaken research designed to investigate the level of public satisfaction with the use of community penalties. But studies such as that by Professor Hough published in the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice (Vol. 35 No. 3 1996) confirm that these penalties are not as widely understood or valued as they should be.