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NOMS has been restructured to join up prison and probation headquarters as part of the reorganisation of the Ministry of Justice. This website will remain live but will no longer be updated. Up to date information about NOMS can now be found on the Ministry of Justice website.

How we manage offenders

Back to Reducing re-offending performance

Latest reducing re-offending performance

National statistics show a continuous decrease in re-offending rates for adults.

National statistics of re-offending rates for adults and young offenders are published every year.

The latest re-offending results for adults (new window) published on 29 March 2007 show that between 1997 and 2004, proven adult re-offending has been reduced by 6.9% against what would be expected from the characteristics of the group.

This means we have exceeded our 5% reduction target set in the 2000 Spending Review.

The findings on adult re-offending rates for the 2004 cohort show a reduction in proven re-offending, after changes in the characteristics of offenders have been accounted for. They show:

  • 5.8% from the 2000 baseline (SR02)  
  • 6.9% from the 1997 baseline (SR00) – the target of five% has been met.

The actual rate of proven adult re-offending has also fallen to 55.5%. NOMS is working towards a 10% reduction in re-offending by the end of the decade. This is the equivalent of a 13.4% reduction comparing 2010 to 1997. 

These latest results show that we are just over halfway towards our long-term ambition.