Users of offender management statistics
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-05-25)

Offender Management Statistics. Key statistics relating to offenders who are in prison or under Probation Service supervision.

It covers flows into these services (receptions into prison or probation starts) and flows out (discharges from prison or probation terminations) as well as the caseload of both services at specific points in time.

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Users of Offender Management 
Statistics 
 
 
 
 
 
Ministry of Justice 
Guidance Documentation 
 
 
 
 
October 2017 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
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Users of Offender Management Statistics 
The contents of the report will be of interest to the public, government policy 
makers, the agencies responsible for offender management at both national and 
local levels, and others who want to understand more about the prison 
population, probation caseload, licence recalls and returns to custody. 
 
The statistics included in this publication are used extensively and meet a broad 
spectrum of user needs as shown below. 
 
User 
Summary of main statistical needs 
MOJ Ministers 
Use the statistics to monitor the prison population and 
capacity of the prison estate; monitor effectiveness of 
probation service and whether resources are deployed 
efficiently; assess policy impacts (e.g. changes to 
sentencing guidance) 
MPs and House of 
Lords 
Statistics are used to answer parliamentary questions – 
approximately 100 are answered each year using prison 
and probation data 
Policy teams 
Statistics are used to inform policy development, to 
monitor impact of changes over time and to model 
future changes and their impact on the system 
Agencies responsible 
for offender 
management 
Current and historical robust administrative data are 
used to support performance management information 
at national and local levels within each agency to 
complement their understanding of the current picture 
and trends over time 
Academia, students 
and businesses 
Used as a source of statistics for research purposes 
and to support lectures, presentations and conferences, 
e.g. data on female foreign national prisoners are 
included in ‘The Criminalisation of Migrant Women’ 
report published by the Institute of Criminology, 
University of Cambridge in July 2012 
Journalists 
Used as a compendium of robust data on offender 
management so that an accurate and coherent story 
can be told on the prison population and probation 
service 
Voluntary sector 
Data are used to inform policy work, responses to 
consultations and briefing papers by analysing trends 
and changes to the prison population, e.g. the Prison 
Reform Trust use published offender management data 
to compile the ‘Bromley Briefing Prison Factfiles’ 
General public 
Data are used to respond to ad-hoc requests and 
requests made under the Freedom of Information (FOI) 
Act: offender management data is used to answer 
around 100 FOIs each year 
 

 
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Contact points 
 
 
Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office: 
 
Tel: xx-xxxx-xxxx 
 
Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to: 
 
Nick Mavron 
Ministry of Justice 
Justice Statistics Analytical Services 
7th Floor 
102 Petty France 
London 
SW1H 9AJ 
 
General enquiries about the statistical work of the Ministry of Justice, or requests for 
alternative formats of this publication can be e-mailed to: 
xxx@xxx.xx 
 
General information about the official statistics system of the UK is available from: 
http://statisticsauthority.gov.uk/about-the-authority/uk-statistical-system 
 
Ministry of Justice publishes data relating to offender management in England and 
Wales. Equivalent statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland can be found at: 
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice 
http://www.dojni.gov.uk/index/statistics-research/stats-research-publications.htm 
 
This publication and associated spreadsheet files of the tables contained in this 
document and detailed information of definitions, sources and key legislative 
changes are available for download at:  
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© Crown copyright 2017 
 
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 
except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit 
nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the 
Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: 
xxx@xxx.xx