Recommendation 79

Justin Russell argued that treatment requirements “are not used as widely as they could be”. 137 Speaking specifically about drug treatment, Justin Russell told us that there is a “huge gap” between the “need for specialist treatment” and the number of offenders served a treatment requirement. 138 Revolving Doors wrote that “the use of treatment requirements is far too low” across the board. 139 NHS England agreed that “the use of treatment requirements as part of a Community Order (CO) or Suspended Sentence Order (SSO) remains low”. 140 Kim Thornden-Edwards told us that CSTRs “have been around for some time, but they seem to have fallen out of regular volume use”. 141 Phil Bowen also told us that “the use of drug rehabilitation requirements has collapsed over the past 10 years”. 142 Caroline regretted that she had not been served a MHTR earlier: “I wish I had had the MHTR a lot sooner in my life”. 143 For comparison with another jurisdiction, “all offenders subject to ECO [an Enhanced Combination Order] were offered assessments by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) psychology staff”. 144 Box 5: Statistics on the imposition of Community Sentence Treatment Requirements (CSTRs) in 2012 and 2022 Over the course of a decade, the number of Alcohol Treatment Requirements and Drug Treatment Requirements imposed by courts decreased. The number of Mental Health Treatment Requirements imposed, however, grew more than twofold. More specifically: 5,971 Alcohol Treatment Requirements were commenced in 2012, representing 3.10% of requirements commenced that year as part of a community order. The number of ATRs commenced dropped to 3,796 in 2022, representing 3.80% of community order requirements commenced that year. 9,290 Drug Rehabilitation Requirements were commenced in 2012, representing 4.82% of requirements commenced that year as part of a community order. The number of DRRs commenced dropped to 3,601 in 2022, representing 3.60% of community order requirements commenced that year. 570 Mental Health Treatment Requirements were commenced in 2012, representing 0.30% of requirements commenced that year as part of a community order. The number of MHTRs commenced increased to 1,302 in 2022, representing 1.30% of community order requirements commenced that year. Source: Ministry of Justice, ‘Offender Management Statistics quarterly: October to December 2022—Probation: 2022, Table A4_8’ (April 2023): https://www.gov .uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december -2022 Availability of treatment