12. Question No. 12—CorrectionsSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga) to the Minister of CorrectionsQuestion No. 12—Corrections12. SIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga) to the Minister of Corrections: How many individuals sentenced to community service have had hours remitted to date under the Epidemic Preparedness (Epidemic Management—COVID-19—Parole Act 2002 and Sentencing Act 2002) Notice 2020 and how many hours were remitted under this notice?Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): Thank you Mr Speaker. At various alert levels community work was unable to take place. During this time 10745 people were subject to a sentence of community work with more than half of these sentences imposed for traffic offences and non-payment of fines. Corrections identified 5576 people who had demonstrated compliance with their sentences during the month prior to lockdown and remitted on average between four to seven hours a week of community work per offender from 23 March to 5 June. This was in line with Section 67A of the Sentencing Act 2002. Simeon Brown: How many times did the Department of Corrections use the alternative power in the epidemic notice to extend the time frame in which someone could complete their court-imposed community service and sentence instead of simply remitting hours of community service? Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Extending hours would have disadvantaged individuals for something outside of their control. It would have also created a backlog of hours for community Corrections to manage with associated health and safety risks. And of course the health and safety of our Corrections staff is our top priority. The length of the lockdown period was unknown at the time these decisions were made.Simeon Brown: So why did he tell the House on 4 June 2020 the situation was made so that they could do their hours post-lockdown." when instead hours were simply taken off their court-imposed sentence?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: In accordance with the provisions of the notice people who had community work hours remitted are still to be required to complete a significant portion of the hours that they had been sentenced to which can be up to 400 hours per person. Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is the Minister saying that it would've been totally unfair to expect someone in lockdown 3 and 4 to leave their home when they could not because of the rules and go out and do community service—that that simple proposition is totally unjustified?Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Well it was totally impossible for people to leave their homes in lockdown alert levels 4 and 3 so what I said in my previous answer was that we would have disadvantaged people for something that was totally out of their control. Hon Stuart Nash: Given the Minister has successfully reduced the prison population by over 13 percent can he confirm that the crime rate has remained relatively stable meaning that this Government has successfully reduced the prison population while keeping Kiwis and communities safe? Hon KELVIN DAVIS: I can confirm that there are fewer people in prison. There are also fewer offenders in the community at the same time that the crime rate has continued to plateau. So what this Government has done is made New Zealand a safer country in the few short years that we've been in power."