To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the Through the Gate programme on reducing prisoner reoffending rates.
Answered on
11 September 2017
It is vital that offenders leaving prison are supported to lead successful and law-abiding lives in the community. That is why weIn 2014/15 the government reformed the probation system to strengthen its focus on reducing reoffending and protecting communities, and much progress has been made in implementing these reforms. For the first time around 40,000 offenders a year released from custodial sentences of less than 12 months are entitled to statutory support from probation on release, and new through-the-gate services have been introduced to improve the resettlement of released prisoners in the community. reformed the probation system to extend post-release supervision to all prisoners released from custody and introduce new through-the-gate resettlement services.
We understand that the current delivery of through-the-gate must improve and recognise the issues raised by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspectors of Prisons and Probation in their report published in June. We are working with providers to explore improvements that could be made to the delivery of rehabilitative services, and we continue to hold providers rigorously to account for their performance to ensure they deliver services which reduce re-offending, protect the public and help offenders contribute to society.