HC Deb 16 October 2001 vol 372 c1199W
Stephen Hesford

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evidence he has collated on the likely effect of community sentences on rates of re-offending; and if he will make a statement. [6054]

Mr. Keith Bradley

Analysis of reconviction rates for different disposals shows that reconviction after community sentences does not differ greatly from that after other sentences once the underlying population characteristics have been taken into account. In recent years reconviction rates after community sentences have stayed fairly constant. However, there is a broad consensus in the research literature that some specific interventions are effective in reducing further offending, typically achieving around a 10-percentage point reduction in reconviction rates. A review of what works can be found in Home Office Research Study 187 'Reducing offending an assessment of research evidence on ways of dealing with offending behaviour'.

Five principles have been found to be key to effective work with offenders:

  1. 1. More intensive programmes need to be targeted at high risk offenders.
  2. 2. Programmes should focus on factors affecting criminal behaviour eg anti social attitudes, drug dependency, low levels of educational and vocational skills, poor cognitive and inter-personal skills.
  3. 3. Programmes need to be properly carried out by trained staff and not deviate from their aims and objectives.
  4. 4. Active, participatory styles of delivery are more effective than unstructured or overly didactic methods.
  5. 5. The most effective types of interventions are skills-based and are designed to improve problem-solving and social interaction.

The National Probation Service is developing new approaches to working with offenders based on research and the principles outlined above in its pathfinder programmes.

Evidence about the effectiveness of these approaches in reducing offending is beginning to emerge but it takes time to obtain reconviction results. The main measure—reconviction rates two years after release from prison or completion of order—is typically only available some three years after the offender has been on the programme. Therefore evidence is only becoming available in 2001 for offenders who started programmes in 1998. Annexe A summarises the currently available evidence, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.