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Prison and Probation Services: Cognitive Skills Programmes
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How much has been spent by the Probation Service and the Prison Service respectively on "cognitive skills" programmes; and whether they will give comparative statistics of the reconviction rates of persons who undertook these programmes, and of their control groups.[HL1249]
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: The expenditure on cognitive skills programmes for the two services is given below.
| £ million | 1999–2000 | 2000–01 | 2001–02 | 2002–03 | 2003–04 |
| Existing baseline | 15 | 31 | 45 | ||
| SR 2000 | 15 | (7)11 | 25 | ||
| Total | 30 | 42 | 70 |
(7) The figures for 2002–03 and 2003–04 reflect the virement of funds as agreed with Hilary Benn in October 2002, ie a reduction of £20 million.
The table shows annual expenditure (including some training costs), the money was spent on a suite of accredited programmes that tackle substance abuse, sex offending, violence and generic cognitive skills programmes. The completion target for 2003–04 is 15,000 offenders.
Prison Service
The table above relates to investment in establishments on offending behaviour programmes since 1999–2000. This includes generic "cognitive skills" programmes and specialist programmes for violent and sex offenders [but not drug programmes].
In addition to this specific investment there is an element of baseline funding which can not accurately be disaggregated from establishment budgets.
Comparison of Reconviction Rates
The international "What Works" evidence base indicates that "cognitive skills programmes" can be effective in reducing reconviction by up to 10 percentage points. Three evaluations of the Prison Service cognitive skills programmes comparing offenders who undertook the programme with an appropriate comparison group have been published. The first evaluation of pre-accredited prison based cognitive skills programmes (Research Findings 161, Friendship et al, 2002) in England and Wales with adult men found participation produced a significant reduction in reconviction of up to 14 percentage points. The second evaluation of accredited programmes run with adult male prisoners (Research Findings 206, Falshaw et al, 2003) found no impact of participation on reconviction. The most recent evaluation (Research Findings 161, Cann et al, November 2003) found that the one-year reconviction rate for both adult men and young offender programme completers (ie dropouts removed from analysis) was significantly lower than for comparison groups. This difference was not maintained at two years and there was no impact when all programme starters were considered (ie including programme dropouts in analysis).
An evaluation of the STOP, a cognitive skills programme which ran in Mid-Glamorgan between 1991–92 (Raynor and Vanstone 2001) found a reduction of five percentage points in reconviction rate for treated offenders compared with an untreated group at twelve months, but no difference in reconviction rates between two groups at 24 months. The research also found a reduction in the seriousness of reconviction for each of the follow-up periods for those who completed treatment.
Independent research has been commissioned by Home Office RDSD on behalf of the National Probation Service to evaluate the accredited programmes which only became widely available in 2001 in probation areas. This will be published later in 2004. This research will compare the reconviction rate of offenders attending the programme with a suitably matched comparison group.
Lord Bowness asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: Regulations will be laid in March setting out the conditions for allowing nationals from the new member state access to the UK labour market.
Lord Northbourne asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: Same-sex couples, some of whom bring up children together, currently have no opportunity to obtain a legal status for their relationship. The civil partnership proposals would give them this opportunity. The Government agree that stable families provide the best environment for children, and the associated rights and responsibilities of civil partnership would help same-sex couples to provide and care for their families.
The Government recognise that marriage is the best foundation for opposite-sex couples raising children and remains the choice of the majority of people in Britain. Opposite-sex couples who wish to obtain legal recognition for their relationships already have the choice of marriage. There are no plans to allow opposite-sex couples to register a civil partnership.
£ million 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04
Comprehensive
Spending
Review 7.3 8.4 8.9 8.9 8.9
Crime
Reduction
Programme 0.7 1.1 1.5 – –
Spending
Review
2000 – – – 3.6 11.6
Total 8.0 9.5 10.4 12.5 20.5
Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 5 January (WA 2) and notwithstanding the temporary restrictions contained in the European Union Accession Treaty as enacted in the European Union (Accessions) Act 2003, whether they will lay before Parliament in March 2004 regulations granting to citizens of the eight European Union accession states the right to work freely in the United Kingdom labour market from 1 May 2004.[HL1361]
Whether they consider that civil partnerships between parents who wish to make a commitment to be responsible parents, but who are either unable or unwilling to marry, could help to increase the number of children enjoying the benefits of a stable family.[HL1389]
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