To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the re-offending rate was of non-violent offenders who received (a) a non-custodial sentence and (b) a custodial sentence of less than three months in each of the last five years. (116143)

[holding answer 22 January 2007]: The most recent re-offending information for adults in England and Wales was published in November 2006 as; ‘Re-offending of Adults: results from the 2003 cohort’ Home Office Statistical Bulletin 20/06. The report is available on line at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb2006.pdf

The report shows two year re-offending rates broken down by offence type (Table A4). It also includes re-offending rates by sentence type and length of custodial sentence (Page 9).