§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what targets he has set HM prisons for the rehabilitation of offenders; and if he will make a statement. [7295]
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§ Beverley HughesThe targets set by the Home Secretary for the rehabilitation of offenders are contained in the Public Service Agreement (PSA) between the Chancellor and the Home Secretary, in a Service Delivery Agreement (SDA) between the Home Secretary and the Prison Service, and in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the Prison Service.
The PSA targets that relate to prisoner rehabilitation are:
to reduce the rate of reconvictions:of all offenders punished by imprisonment or by community supervision by 5 per cent. by 2004 compared to the predicted rate; andof all young offenders by 5 per cent. by 2004 compared to the predicted rate;to reduce the levels of repeat offending among problem drug misusing offenders by 25 per cent. by 2005 (and by 50 per cent. by 2008).The targets contained in the SDA that relate to the rehabilitation of offenders are:
to increase the educational and vocational qualifications of offenders to 23,400 accredited educational/vocational qualifications in 2001–02 and 36,200 in 2003–04. including an increase in the number of level 2 basic skill awards from 18,000 to 21,000;to increase the number of offenders going through accredited offending behaviour programmes to 8,900 by 2003–04, including 1,240 through sex offender treatment programmes;to double the number of prisoners getting jobs on release by April 2004;to reduce the rate of positive results from random drug tests from 20 per cent. in 1998–99 to 10 per cent. by 31 March 2004;to increase the number of prisoners entering treatment between 2001–02 and 2003–04 in the following categories:CARATS (Counselling, Assessment Referral, Advice and Throughcare, Services) from 20,000 to 25,000;detoxification-from 23,000 to 27,000;drug rehabilitation programmes and therapeutic communities—from 5,000 to 5,700;to establish, by December 2000, a baseline and targets for the Spending Review period, for increasing the caseload of prisoners on a voluntary drug testing compact.The four current KPI targets that relate to prisoner rehabilitation are:
to deliver 23,400 accredited educational or vocational qualifications in 2001–02, including 18,000 level 2 basic skills awards;to ensure that prisoners spend on average at least 24 hours per week engaged in purposeful activity;to deliver 6,100 accredited offending behaviour programme completions in 2001–02, including 1,160 completions of sex offender treatment programmes;to ensure the rate of positive results from random mandatory drug tests is lower than 12 per cent. by April 2002.