Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help prevent reoffending by people convicted of violent offences.

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 has decreased from 31.6% to 24.4%.

Rehabilitation is critical to reducing reoffending. It is the process by which we assist people either to change themselves or improve their life circumstances, addressing their drivers of reoffending and therefore cutting crime. Rehabilitation takes many forms, ranging from the delivery of a cognitive behaviour programme to enabling a person to access suitable accommodation and the means to earn a living.

HMPPS offers 5 Accredited Programmes specifically designed for those individuals convicted of general, domestic, intimate partner violent offending: Kaizen, Becoming New Me Plus (BNM+), Building Better Relationships (BBR), New Me Strengths (NMS), and Living as New Me (LNM). The Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) is a responsive and flexible Accredited Programme that may be suitable for those offenders who do not meet the eligibility criteria for more specific programmes, as well as the New Me MOT toolkit, offering continuity of support to those who have completed the Kaizen, BNM+, or NMS programmes.

In addition to our targeted work to prevent violent crime reoffending, we are also working hard to ensure that prison leavers across the estate have the right building blocks in place to ensure they are successful on release. For example, we are helping prison leavers to secure accommodation, employment, and substance misuse treatment, all of which are essential for rehabilitation and can significantly reduce the likelihood of reoffending. We are also delivering Commissioned Rehabilitative Services which provide offenders with tailored, community-based services to support rehabilitation and drive down reoffending. On top of this, we are expanding the use of electronic monitoring for both community-based sentences and post-custody licence to help reduce the risk of reoffending and support robust offender management.

Finally, public protection work is central to the work of the Probation Service. We have also increased our baseline funding by £155 million per annum which is helping us to increase staffing and take other action to improve delivery across HMPPS so that the service can best achieve its purpose of protecting the public and reducing reoffending.