To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the average daily cost of supervising an offender on a community order. (127877)

For 2005-06 the average annual cost per case for a community sentence (including Suspended Sentence Orders) has been estimated as £3,265. This gives a simple average figure of £9 per day.

As 2005-06 was a transitional year, with sentences running under both the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and the previous regulations, this estimated cost should be treated with caution.