GOVERNMENT NOT LEARNING LESSONS FROM LOCALISM - WILLIAMS

11.33.46am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 11th Jun 2009

After a Parliamentary Question revealed that the Government do not collect data on local reoffending rates, despite the fact that individual forces have different approaches on when to issue cautions, Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Roger Williams MP has expressed his disappointment that the Government is failing to use this information so that forces can refine their approach.

After figures released earlier this year showed large discrepancies between forces giving cautions and prosecuting to those guilty of serious offences, Roger Williams asked Justice Secretary Jack Straw what measures were in place to review the approaches when they differ so widely. In response Mr Straw said that the differences were as the result of localism.

But in answer to Mr Williams's parliamentary question, which asked the Government what the youth reoffending rates were for those receiving reprimands and final warnings, broken down by force area, then Justice Minister David Hanson said that these figures could not be broken down by geographical area. However, data on adult reoffending rates is held by local authority area.

The figures also suggest that the Government are finding it harder to deal with youth reoffending. While youth reoffending has gone up slightly both for those who are given final warnings and reprimands and those in custody since 2004, adult reoffending has gone down, and the number of offences committed by those reoffending has gone down significantly.

Commenting, Roger Williams said:

"I am entirely happy for decisions on when to caution and when to prosecute to be taken by forces, but it is ludicrous for the Government not to attempt to gauge what is working and what isn't.

"Forces are taking different approaches, and that is entirely reasonable, but if they have no way of comparing the success of their approach with other forces, then they are effectively in the dark over what is the best approach to take in future.

"The Government is missing a golden opportunity to compare forces with each other and isolate those that have had most success. Despite their professed belated enthusiasm for localism, the Government still doesn't seem able to follow it through to its logical conclusion.

On youth reoffending rates, he added:

"It is something of a concern that the Government doesn't seem to be able to further reduce youth reoffending, with nearly four-fifths of those discharged from custody reoffending.

"There is a real concern that by not even using all the information that is available, that the Government is missing an opportunity to look at the benefits of different approaches to reduce reoffending. I am pleased that adult reoffending rates are now being collated by local authority area, and I hope the same will be done with youth reoffending."