asked Her Majesty’s Government:

What action they intend to take in the light of the fourth report on restorative justice.

My Lords, although the recently published research report showed that, overall, the evidence of the effectiveness of restorative justice in reducing adult reoffending is no stronger than that for other interventions, earlier research showed that it delivers high levels of victim satisfaction. The Government are therefore considering what further encouragement they can provide to support the continued growth of adult and youth restorative justice, taking account of the complete findings from the evaluation of the crime reduction programme restorative justice pilots.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply, but I was somewhat surprised that he drew that conclusion, as one of the major points of the report was that, taken overall, reconviction rates had reduced. I was looking forward to hearing the Government’s plans for extending this over the whole criminal justice system. Have the Government come to any conclusion about the effectiveness of the different forms of restorative justice, given that a key element is the experience of the offenders themselves in the process?

My Lords, I am sorry that I disappointed the noble and right reverend Lord, but the evidence for the effectiveness of restorative justice on reducing reoffending is not stronger than that for other interventions. There may be an extremely limited positive effect against the traditional measure of the likelihood of reoffending over two years. There was statistically significant evidence that restorative justice reduces the frequency of further offending, but no evidence that it reduces its severity. Our job is to evaluate the research, which shows that restorative justice may have a positive aspect as regards reoffending but that victims express massive support for it. As I said, the Government will carry on trying to improve and bring forward restorative justice.

My Lords, the Minister laid particular emphasis on the word “adult” when he talked about the statistical results. Does that lead us to believe, or hope, that the results for juvenile offenders were more significant?

My Lords, the research concerned mainly adult offenders. As the noble Lord knows better than most, restorative justice is embedded in the youth justice system. It has been taken forward in that system and is being taken further forward as we speak, as an addition to the conditional cautions that are being piloted for 16 and 17 year-olds.

My Lords, would it surprise my noble friend to hear that, during a visit to New York last week as a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform’s Commission on English Prisons Today, I learnt that the local prison population there has plummeted, crime has gone down dramatically and people feel safer? Can he see to it that we examine the factors that were put into place in New York to bring about a situation that is much more encouraging than the one that we face?

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend, who speaks with great knowledge on these matters. Of course I will go back to the department and suggest that it finds out—I should imagine that it has done so already—what has happened in New York and whether that has relevance to our position here. I am sure that it does.

My Lords, does the Minister accept that the twin aims of restorative justice are to reduce reoffending and to assist in the process of rehabilitating offenders? If that is the case, when does he expect to review the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which in fact inhibits large numbers of offenders coming out of prisons getting a decent job so that they can lead a decent life?

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord about what restorative justice can do. It can do a third thing, too: to a moderate extent, it can increase the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system, which is also very important. We are looking at all matters. In the period during which we have had the four reports, the Government have spent £5 million on this. We are looking at all ways of bringing forward restorative justice in a sensible way.

My Lords, is the Minister aware of the restorative justice programmes that are provided by the chaplaincy service within the prison system? Would he be prepared to take evidence from the chaplains when evaluating the worth of restorative justice programmes?

My Lords, I have indeed heard of the absolutely excellent work that is done by the chaplaincy service. On the second question, it would of course be a pleasure to take evidence.

My Lords, does the Minister agree that there must be great discrimination as to which sorts of crimes are suitable for restorative justice treatment, because sometimes the victims of crimes are very unwilling to meet or have any further communication with the offender, as that can cause great distress?

My Lords, the noble Baroness, as always, makes a wise comment. What she says is undoubtedly the case. Although a small number of victims were dissatisfied overall with the process once they had agreed to take part, the process has to be voluntary, certainly for victims. The Government have to take into account the fact that 28 per cent of victims who participated in conferences—those are direct meetings, although there can be indirect meetings—did not feel that the offender was sincere. It is crucial to make sure that victims are happy with this type of justice.

My Lords, the Minister referred to the importance of public confidence. What steps are the Government taking to promote public confidence in restorative justice?

My Lords, I said in my reply that we have embedded restorative justice in the youth justice system, so it is very much there and is used a great deal. As far as adults are concerned, we are looking hard at the results of all four reports to see how we can take the scheme further. However, nothing would be worse than to rush too far ahead with restorative justice and thus lose the confidence of those whom it is meant to help, who, I repeat, are the victims.