Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many hours of unpaid work have been completed as part of Community Sentences in each of the last five years.

The number of UPW hours delivered in the last five years are:

• April 2016 to March 2017: 5,582,445
• April 2017 to March 2018: 5,382,173
• April 2018 to March 2019: 5,310,526
• April 2019 to March 2020: 4,868,990
• April 2020 to March 2021: 1,356,061

The figures for April 2020 – March 2021 evidence a decline in unpaid work delivery resulting from the pandemic and the need to comply with public health regulations, such as lockdowns and social distancing measures.

Prior to 26^th June 2021, Community Rehabilitation Companies were responsible for the delivery of unpaid work. Since then, the new unified probation service has assumed responsibility for unpaid work delivery. This has provided an opportunity to re-energise our work, drive up completion rates and deliver better outcomes. We will deliver better quality and more robust unpaid work placements that are highly visible to the public and that meet both punitive and reparative aims. We want to move away from a reliance on individual placements towards incorporating larger national projects with public bodies and charities and we are keen to involve our stakeholders as much as possible in our plans.