HC Deb 30 March 1998 vol 309 cc386-7W
15. Mr. Borrow

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what pilot schemes(a) have been implemented and (b) are proposed to improve the delivery of non-custodial sentencing. [35166]

Ms Quin

A Community Sentence Demonstration Project has been set up in Teesside and Shropshire. Several measures contained in the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 relating to community sentences are being piloted for 18 months in Greater Manchester and Norfolk. They will be extended to additional Greater Manchester courts on 1 April.

The Government have introduced provision for a drug treatment and testing order in the Crime and Disorder Bill, which we expect to be piloted in the autumn this year and under the Bill, we hope to begin piloting new orders including the reparation order and the action plan orders.

We have also recently announced our decision, in principle, to extend the availability of electronic monitoring.