Oral Answers to Questions

Adam Afriyie Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

When the right hon. Lady was a Minister, she had to answer questions. She is not burdened with that responsibility at present.

[Adam Afriyie (Windsor) (Con)]

10. What steps his Department has taken to reduce reoffending rates.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Chris Grayling)]

We have opened up the delivery of rehabilitation services to a diverse range of public, private and voluntary sector providers who will be paid in full only if they are successful at reducing reoffending. Rehabilitation support is being extended to an extra 45,000 offenders on sentences of less than 12 months who have previously received little, if any, support on release and have the highest reoffending rates.

[Adam Afriyie]

It seems to me that there is nothing better for the economy, society and our constituents than when offenders come out of prison and stay out of prison, so my spirits are lifted to learn that across the Windsor constituency there were fewer than 100 reoffenders in the year to 2013. Does the Secretary of State agree that we must continue to do all we can to help ex-offenders back into work and to help them regain a foothold in our society?

[Chris Grayling]

Absolutely—this is now the only way we can continue to drive down crime to the degree we want. We have fewer first-time offenders, as the Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous), said earlier, and that is good news. Crime increasing is caused by people going round and round the system. I believe that for the first time in decades, we have real chance of making a serious impact on that by providing support to short-sentence prisoners who were previously left to walk the streets with £46 in their pockets, and not surprisingly ended up back in the same places committing the same crimes all over again.