To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what proportion of those convicted of drug offences offend again within three years of (a) release from imprisonment or (b) the pronouncement of a non-custodial sentence;(2) what are the comparative success ratios, measured by reoffending rates, of the various types of sentence passed upon those convicted of drug-related offences.

The only readily available information is about drugs offenders discharged from custody in 1984 who were reconvicted within two years. This was published in table 8(c) of prison statistics for England and Wales 1987 (Cm 547) a copy of which is in the Library.