§ Lord Marlesfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will give the total hours of community service handed down by the courts in each of the last five years, showing the figures for England, Scotland and Wales separately. [HL3839]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Rooker)The available information from the Home Office and the Scottish Executive Justice Department Court Proceedings Databases shows the total hours of community service orders imposed by all courts in England, Scotland and Wales for each year from 1996 to 2000.
Information for 2001 will be available in the autumn.
Total number of hours of community service 1 imposed by all courts in England, Scotland and Wales 1996 to 2000 Year England2 Scotland3 Wales2 1996 6,333,826 996,932 428,642 1997 6,680,040 1,068,177 449,586 1998 6,867,312 988,849 506,321 1999 6,846,047 924,780 512,797 2000 4 6,703,266 895,719 497,154 1 Total hours of community service orders and community service orders within combination orders. 2 Data for England and Wales are on the principal offence basis. 3 Data for Scotland relate to all offences. 4 Staffordshire police were able to supply only a sample of data for magistrates' courts proceedings covering one full week in each quarter for 2000. Estimates based on this sample are included in the figures as they are considered sufficiently robust at this high level of analysis.