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Reoffenders

Question for Ministry of Justice

UIN HL1566, tabled on 15 January 2024

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of people released from prison went on to reoffend, what number of reoffences were committed on average, what was the total number of reoffences, and what was the total number of reoffenders by custodial sentence length for (1) men, and (2) women, for the most recent year that figures are available.

Answered on

30 January 2024

This Government is committed to tackling the causes of reoffending to keep our communities safe. Between 2010/11 and 2020/21, the overall proven reoffending rate decreased from 31.6% to 24.4%.

Helping prison leavers to secure accommodation, employment, and substance misuse treatment on release is essential for rehabilitation and can significantly reduce their likelihood of reoffending. We are therefore investing in a range of interventions including delivering our temporary accommodation service so that prison-leavers have a stable base on release, offering more offenders the chance to work in prison and expanding the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living wings so that we can support prisoners off drugs and into recovery.

Further, we are seeking to introduce a presumption against short sentences which we know have significantly higher reoffending rates than suspended and community sentences.

The answer can be found in the tables below.

Table 1: Reoffending rate, number of reoffences and average number of reoffences per reoffender for offenders released from custody, male and female (adult), April 2020 – March 2021.

April 2020 - March 2021

Female offenders

Proportion of offenders who reoffend (%)

44.1%

Average number of reoffences per reoffender

5.89

Number of reoffences

8,686

Male offenders

Proportion of offenders who reoffend (%)

37.5%

Average number of reoffences per reoffender

4.46

Number of reoffences

72,549

All adult offenders

Proportion of offenders who reoffend (%)

38.0%

Average number of reoffences per reoffender

4.58

Number of reoffences

81,235

Table 2: Number of reoffenders by custodial sentence length, male (adult), April 2020 – March 2021

April 2020 - March 2021

Less than or equal to 6 months

Number of reoffenders

8,902

More than 6 months to less than 12 months

Number of reoffenders

2,170

12 months to less than 2 years

Number of reoffenders

2,176

2 years to less than 4 years

Number of reoffenders

1,995

4 years to 10 years

Number of reoffenders

958

More than 10 years

Number of reoffenders

38

Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP)

Number of reoffenders

13

Mandatory Life (MLP)

Number of reoffenders

8

Other Life [Note 1]

Number of reoffenders

6

All male adult reoffenders

Number of reoffenders

16,266

Table 3: Number of reoffenders by custodial sentence length, female (adult), April 2020 – March 2021

April 2020 – March 2021

Less than or equal to 6 months

Number of reoffenders

1,056

More than 6 months to less than 12 months

Number of reoffenders

212

12 months to less than 2 years

Number of reoffenders

113

2 years to less than 4 years

Number of reoffenders

79

4 years to 10 years

Number of reoffenders

14

More than 10 years

Number of reoffenders

0

Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP)

Number of reoffenders

0

Mandatory Life (MLP)

Number of reoffenders

0

Other Life [Note 1]

Number of reoffenders

0

All female adult reoffenders

Number of reoffenders

1,474

[Note 1] 'Other life' category includes discretionary and automatic life sentences.