§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions(Mr. Chris Pond)The Department is today publishing a research report by the National Centre for Social Research that presents the findings of the evaluation of the policy to apply benefit sanctions to offenders found by the courts to have breached their community sentences. Copies have been placed in the Library.
The scheme has been piloted by Jobcentre Plus and the Probation Service in Derbyshire, Hertfordshire, Teesside and the West Midlands since October 2001. The evaluation looked at the effects of the policy between 15 October 2001 and 14 October 2002. Overall it found a small, positive impact on compliance with community sentences, with an estimated 1.8 per cent. increase in compliance among those on relevant benefits.
The Government gave a commitment not to extend the scheme nationally without considering carefully the findings of the evaluation. Although there has been a positive impact on compliance and over 1,490 offenders have been sanctioned since the pilots commenced, the report also identifies some problems in the administration of the scheme and the way it is explained to offenders.
On this basis we have decided to continue the pilots for a further year along with improvements to the monitoring and management of the probation processes together with better and more frequent explanations of the scheme to offenders themselves. These two changes, identified in the report as shortcomings during the first phase of the pilots, will ensure that the Department is informed of breaches, and a sanction imposed on the offender in all relevant cases. This in turn will help offenders to relate the sanction more clearly to the behaviour which gave rise to their breach.
The results of these operational improvements on the effectiveness of the scheme will be assessed before a decision is made on the long term future of the scheme.
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