Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce reoffending.

Over the last 10 years, overall proven re-offending has decreased from 30.9 per cent (2009-10) to 25.6 per cent (2019-20).

In the 2021 Prisons Strategy White Paper, we set out ambitious cross-government plans to tackle re-offending issues. We are investing £550 million in services over the Spending Review period to get offenders into skills training, work and stable accommodation. The White Paper was published alongside the Government’s 10-Year Drug Strategy, and we are investing an additional £120 million to tackle substance misuse.

We are also strengthening the supervision and monitoring of offenders in the community by:

• making permanent the additional £155 million per year for the new unified probation service
• promoting integrated working between the Probation Service, the police and other partner agencies; and
• investing £75 million a year by 2024-25 to expand the use of GPS-enabled and alcohol abstinence-monitoring electronic tagging of offenders.

We are also giving £300 million of funding over the Spending Review period to youth offending teams in England and Wales – the largest investment in youth justice in a generation.