Written questions by Welsh.

What steps her Department is taking to reduce reoffending rates in Sherwood Forest constituency.

This Government is committed to reducing reoffending by giving people the tools they need to turn their backs on crime. To do that, we will increase prisoners’ access to purposeful activity, including education and employment, which we know can reduce reoffending by up to 9 percentage points.For example, we have recruited specialist education and employment roles in prisons to support and prepare prisoners for work on release. This includes Prison Employment Leads who match prisoners to jobs, and Neurodiversity Support Managers to help neurodiverse offenders to access education, skills and work opportunities. Both roles are currently in place at HMP Nottingham and HMP Ranby, two prisons close to Sherwood Forest constituency.We are determined to help ensure our hard-working probation staff can continue to deliver high-quality supervision and focus their time on those cases which need most attention including for offenders who reside in the Sherwood Forrest constituency. Operationally, we are focusing probation officer time and energy on the higher risk individuals they have to supervise outside of prison to ensure that the public continue to be protected. We have also committed to bring in at least 1,000 new trainee probation officers across the 2024/25 financial year, allowing for greater oversight and management of offenders once they leave prisons.

How many people have used probation services in Sherwood Forest constituency in each of the last 12 months.

The table below shows the number of people under supervision on the last day of each of the last 12 months.Caseload periodNumber of offenders31 July 202332531 August 202332730 September 202333131 October 202333930 November 202334731 December 202334331 January 202435329 February 202434431 March 202434230 April 202434031 May 202433930 June 2024341 Notes:[1] Offenders may be subject to multiple sentences. Each person is counted once only in the total even if they are subject to several types of probation supervision on the date shown. For example, if a person is subject to both a community order and a Supervision Default Order on the date shown, then the person would be counted once only within the total of all Probation Service supervision.[2] Includes offenders subject to a court order or pre- or post-release supervision.[3] Excludes suspended sentence orders without requirements attached.[4] These statistics are a further breakdown of the probation caseload in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication. A published breakdown by Probation Service region is included in table 6.8.[5] The figures presented in this table are based on offenders subject to probation supervision on the date shown who have a recorded main (home) address in the parliamentary constituency of Sherwood Forest. This table does not account for those with no fixed address or recorded postcode. Over the time periods covered in the table, the number of offenders with no fixed address or recorded postcode ranged from 12% to 14% of the total number of offenders subject to probation supervision in England and Wales.[Note 6] The constituency was formerly known as Sherwood. It was renamed as a result of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, with minor boundary changes. These changes came into effect for the 2024 general election. All periods in this table are based on the latest composition of the constituency. Data sources and qualityThe figures in this table 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. Source: National Delius case management system. PQ 16865 (Ministry of Justice; Analysis Directorate: PPR)