HC Deb 19 December 2000 vol 360 cc123-4W
Mr. Miller

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will commence the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 and Part II of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. [143685]

Mr. Straw

We are implementing both these important measures as quickly as possible because of the important equality and child protection measures they contain.

The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 will be commenced in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland, on 8 January 2001. Commencement in Scotland is a matter for the Scottish Executive.

Part II of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act will be commenced in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland, on 11 January 2001.

Mr. Cotter

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of convicted sex offenders have been treated with cognitive behaviour therapies over the past 10 years; and what proportion of those(a) treated and (b) not treated have re-offended subsequently. [142938]

Mr. Boateng

Information is available on the number of sex offenders in prison in England and Wales who have completed a cognitive behavioural Sex Offender Treatment Programme since 1992. This is shown in the table. It is not possible to calculate what percentage this is of all convicted s offenders but for comparison the population of sentenced sex offenders in prison each year is shown.

All Sex Offender Treatment Programmes in English and Welsh prisons are evaluated by the Prison Service's Offender Behaviour. Programme Unit (OBPU) with additional input from independent external researchers.

OBPU has made an analysis of all sexual offenders released from prism, between 1992 and March 1996. The results showed that treated offenders had slightly better reconviction rates after two years than untreated offenders except for the very highest risk category. The number of reconvictions were small however, which made it difficult to attach significance levels to the results.

More detailed evaluations of Prison Service's later prison treatment programmes are now being carried out by a team of independent researchers—but it is still too early for reliable reconviction studies.

Numbers completing Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTP) and population of sentenced sex offenders in prison since 1992–93 England and Wales
Year Numbers completing SOTP Sentenced sex offenders in custody (30 June each year)
1992–93 284 3,156
1993–94 439 3,180
1994–95 554 3,279
1995–96 439 3,668
1996–97 680 3,951
1997–98 736 4,077
1998–99 664 4,795
1999–2000 669 4,946

Note:

This information is also available in "Prison Statistics England & Wales" 1999 CM 4405 (tables 1.7 and 7.2), a copy of which is in the Library.