To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been placed on the high visibility payback scheme in each of the last 12 months. (287944)

Distinctive high visibility jackets have been worn by offenders sentenced to Community Payback since December 2008. The number of work projects on which distinctive clothing is used and the number of hours worked by offenders wearing distinctive clothing is monitored by the National Management of Offender Service. The number of offenders allocated to high visibility Community Payback work projects is not recorded. This is because the existing data provides a clear indication of the proportion of work undertaken in probation areas using distinctive clothing. The number of Community Payback work projects on which distinctive high visibility clothing was worn by offenders and the number of hours worked on these sites since December 2008 is shown in the following table.

In the year April 2008 to March 2009 over 62,000 offenders successfully completed Community Payback sentences and approximately 8.4 million hours were worked.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people who have been placed on the high visibility payback scheme have not completed the scheme. (287971)

In the period April to June 2009 75.3 per cent. of offenders sentenced to Community Payback successfully completed their sentences. All community sentences are rigorously enforced and following more than one absence without good reason, National Standards require that offenders are returned to court. If there is wilful refusal to comply with the sentence, the court may impose a prison sentence. Offenders may fail to complete their sentences for a number of reasons, including revocation of the Community Payback sentence and the imposition of an alternative sentence following failure to comply, revocation as a result of illness, or revocation following the imposition of a custodial sentence for other offences.

Information relating to successful completion of sentences by offenders allocated to high visibility work sites is not available separately from the overall successful completion rate for offenders sentenced to Community Payback, not all of whom will have been allocated exclusively to high visibility work sites.