Government response to the Committee’s report: Cutting crime: better community sentences

This is the government's response, published 1 March 2024.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Ministry of Justice says it is committed to robust community sentences and sets out existing and planned work across the Committee's conclusions, agreeing with many while disagreeing with a small number of specific recommendations.

• On Pre-Sentence Reports, the government says it does "not agree" they are the most suitable place for localised information on community sentences, as it "risks lengthening the report". It says the Probation Service "will consider" a digital link within the report, dependent on finding a digital hosting solution.
• On incentives for offenders, it says sentence length is for the independent judiciary and the Probation Service "does not have the power" to reduce it. It will "monitor the developments and outcomes of the ICSO project" (the Irish integrated community service order scheme).
• It does not agree that the response to the needs of low-level repeat offenders is to "increase the intensity of treatment for all offenders". It says it is instead focusing on making rehabilitative activities available to courts.
• On Intensive Supervision Courts, it agrees evaluation is essential. An interim process evaluation report "will be published later in 2024", followed by a final process evaluation report in 2025.

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