Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many referrals have been made to Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements Approved Hostels and Interventions, including Programmes in each month of the last two years.

The Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements are a mechanism through which criminal justice agencies can better discharge their statutory responsibilities and protect the public in a co-ordinated manner. MAPPA is designed to protect the public, including previous victims of crime, from serious harm by sexual and violent offenders. MAPPA is not an agency or body in its own right but rather requires local agencies dealing with offenders to work together in partnership in order to manage risk. MAPPA does not commission or operate interventions or programmes and none is unique to offenders managed under MAPPA.

Approved Premises (formerly known as probation or bail hostels) are used to provide enhanced supervision for higher-risk offenders who have been released from prison after completing the custodial part of their sentence. They also house a small number of defendants on bail. Requiring higher-risk offenders to reside in an Approved Premises enables us to monitor and supervise them as effectively as possible. Whilst in an Approved Premises, they are subject to a curfew and other controls, whilst Approved Premises staff working closely with local police officers to respond quickly to any signs of escalating risk. It would be much more difficult to monitor them if they were dispersed into less suitable accommodation throughout the community.

Whether an offender is admitted to an Approved Premises depends on specific monitoring and risk management need. Not all offenders under MAPPA are admitted and not all offenders in Approved Premises are managed under MAPPA. The table below shows the number of offenders managed under MAPPA who were admitted to an Approved Premises in each month between September 2012 and August 2014 (the most recent for which we have full data). Data about offenders who were referred to APs but not admitted is not collected in a way that would allow us to distinguish those under MAPPA management.

No data is collected about the numbers of offenders who are required to undertake particular programmes or other interventions as part of the terms of their release licences. All offenders, whether or not managed under MAPPA, will undertake some interventions intended to address their offending behaviour and reduce re-offending. The choice of intervention will be tailored to the individual offender’s needs.

Admissions to Approved Premises September 2012 – August 2014