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<p>Since 2010, crime has continued to fall and fewer individuals are entering the
criminal justice system for the first time. But we have a persistent hardcore of offenders
being recycled round and round the criminal justice system, as these figures bear
out.</p><p>This Government is committed to tackling re-offending rates. We have reformed
sentences, so that they combine both punishment and requirements that are effective
at preventing further offending. We have legislated so that all community orders must
now have a punitive element, and, from 2015, every offender leaving prison spends
at least 12 months under supervision, where currently around 50,000 are released each
year with no statutory support. We are transforming rehabilitation, by bringing together
the best of the public, private and voluntary sectors, and only rewarding them when
they actually do reduce reoffending.</p><p>Sentencing in individual cases is a matter
for our independent judiciary, taking account of the circumstances of the case and
the maximum penalty for the offence. A court may only impose a community order or
a custodial sentence where the offence is imprisonable. The overwhelming majority
of repeat offenders have previously received a number of custodial sentences but the
large majority of previous convictions identified in the table below resulted in a
fine as they were for summary non-motoring offences.</p><p>The number of offenders
who were given a non-custodial sentence in each year since 2004, broken down by their
number of previous convictions, is given in Table 1. It is important to note that
these figures are based only on those offences recorded on the Police National Computer
(PNC) by an English or Welsh police force, including the British Transport Police,
and include a number of offences for which the maximum sentence available to the court
is a fine. It should also be noted that these figures are based on counting the number
of separate occasions on which offenders were sentenced in each year and some offenders
will therefore be represented several times in the figures.</p><p>Table 2 provides
a similar breakdown for those offenders who received their first custodial sentence
in each year. Again, the figures are drawn from the PNC and will include a number
of offences for which the maximum sentence available to the court is a fine. A large
proportion of each offender's criminal history is therefore likely to include some
offences for which it is not possible to receive a custodial sentence. Of those offenders
who had between 76 and 100 previous convictions between the 12 months ending September
2004 and the 12 months ending September 2013, 84% of the disposals for their previous
convictions were fines. This increases to 96% when you look at the offenders who had
over 100 previous convictions. It should also be noted that these figures are based
on counting the number of separate occasions on which offenders were sentenced in
each year and some offenders could therefore be represented several times in the figures.</p><p>The
number of offenders who have received at least one previous conviction, or indeed
multiple previous convictions, before receiving their first custodial sentence has
decreased under this Government.</p>
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