To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) longest, (b) average and (c) shortest waiting period for domestic violence perpetrators programmes was for each probation area in the latest period for which figures are available. (188270)

The information requested is contained in the following table. It covers the period from April 2006 to March 2007.

Offenders waiting for a place on a domestic violence programme are under the supervision of their offender manager from the day of sentence. The offender manager will monitor the risk posed by the offender and actively manage it. Additionally the offender manager will normally prepare offenders for the programmes by carrying out set work. This can take between six and 12 weeks.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The data take no account of time that elapses because of the need to deliver other requirements of the sentence, or because the offender is recalled into custody, for example.

The domestic violence programmes are still relatively new and demand from the courts has exceeded expectations. A series of measures are in place to reduce the period of time before an offender can start a programme.