PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Community Orders (14 November 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the number of offenders who have breached and subsequently not completed their community orders affects level payments made by the Department to the company responsible for those orders.

Asked by:
Richard Burgon (Labour)

One of the performance measures for Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) is the proportion of offenders who completed their community sentence successfully. This means that an offender did not reoffend, or breach their order throughout the whole sentence. The measure provides assurance that sentences are being delivered in their entirety. If a CRC fails to meet the required performance for a performance measure we can require the CRC to pay a Service Credit. These are a pre-estimate of the minimum level of loss or damage as a result of a reduced provision of services by CRCs. The application of Service Credits is a standard part of our robust contract management process.

So whilst the number of offenders who have breached and not completed their community order does not affect the payments made to the company directly, it can result in a Service Credit being applied.

Answered by:
Mr Sam Gyimah (Liberal Democrat)
22 November 2016