Virendra Sharma – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Virendra Sharma on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of re-offending.

Andrew Selous

Reducing reoffending is a priority for the Ministry of Justice, to cut crime and improve public safety. The Ministry of Justice does not analyse the overall cost to the public purse of reoffending. However, the National Audit Office (NAO) has produced analysis in the past.

Reoffending has been too high for too long which is why we are investing £1.3bn over the next five years to transform the prison estate and give prisoners the help they need to turn their lives around. We have also changed the way offenders are managed in the community with almost all now receiving targeted support on release. This will help reduce reoffending, cut crime and make our streets safer.