Open date: 24 July 2008
Close date: 22 August 2008
A consultation on proposals to improve the presentation of statistics on prisons and probation, sentencing and reoffending. The substantive content of these publications will remain the same, with the same detailed tables in almost every case.
- Offender management caseload statistics
- Reoffending of adults: new measures of reoffending
- Reoffending of juveniles: new measures of reoffending
- Sentencing statistics (annual)
- Sentencing statistics (quarterly)
Each of these publications are National Statistics publications, with the exception of the quarterly sentencing statistics.
In order to streamline the publications to make them more useful to users, it is proposed to reduce the volume of detailed text in the publications, and instead to pull out the key points from chapters more clearly at the start of the chapters and via executive summaries, where appropriate.
It is also proposed that some tables are dropped from the offender management caseload statistics and sentencing statistics, as follows:
Offender management caseload statistics
| Table number | Reason |
|---|---|
| Information published in another source | |
| 7.4 | included in table 7.4a |
| 8.16 | included in table 8.10 and monthly 'population in custody' tables |
| 10.13, 10.14, 10.15 | included in Parole Board annual report |
| To be included as part of another table | |
| 3.12 | to be merged with 3.13 |
| 8.12 | to be merged with 8.3 |
| 8.13 | to be merged with 8.11 |
| 10.6 | to be merged with 10.6a |
| Data quality issues | |
| 4.7, 7.12, 8.18, 10.12 | It may be possible to reintroduce 10.12 in future years, subject to development and data quality assurance of new new sources. |
| 2.2, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 5.10 | No users identified within Ministry of Justice or elsewhere |
Sentencing statistics
| Table number | Reason |
|---|---|
| Information published in another source | |
| 1.5 - 1.8 | remove the numbers in thousands, real data is available elsewhere in the publication |
| 2.4 | information of value in other tables, no need to show prison places required; in table 5.7 |
| 2.7 | already included in table 2.9 |
| 2.11 | custody rates added to tables 1.2 - 1.4 give more value |
| 2.12 | included twice |
| 3.4 | already included in table 3.7 |
| 3.8 | can be calculated from tables 1.2 - 1.4 |
| 4.5 | already included in tables 1.2 - 1.4 |
| 5.4 | already included in new table 5.5 - 5.6 |
| 5.1 | can be included as a new version of tables 5.5 - 5.6 |
| 5.3 | covered in criminal statistics; more appropriate there |
| Information to be amended to be of more value and allow other tables to be removed | |
| 1.2 - 1.4 | add custody values |
| 2.6 | data quality issues around this information |
| 3.7 | add community sentence table |
| 4.4 | add info. on other disposals to table 4.4, put in chapter 1 |
| new table | all court version of 5.5 and 5.6; will allow table 5.1 to be removed and consistent with layout of other chapters |
The proposals could help improve the timeliness and quality of some of the publications.
Consultation paper
Details of the proposals are outlined above.
Contact details
Please send any comments on these specific proposals, or on how we can improve the presentation and distribution of these publications, to:
Rebecca Cole
Prison and Probation statistics
Ministry of Justice
2nd Floor, Fry Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Tel: 020 7035 3457
