The report is released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

For further information about the Justice Data Lab, please refer to the following guidance:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab">http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab

Key findings this quarter

Two requests are being published this quarter: The Thinking Skills Programme (2010-2019), and Lancashire Women – second request (2015-2021).

The Thinking Skills Programme (2010 – 2019)

There are two Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) reports which evaluate (a) the impact on reoffending behaviour, and (b) the impact on prison misconduct, for individuals who participated in the TSP. The TSP is an accredited offending behaviour programme designed and delivered by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

Impact evaluation of prison-based TSP on reoffending

The reoffending study involved a treatment group of 20,293 adults (18,555 males, 1,738 females) who participated in the TSP in custody between 2010 and 2019. Proven reoffending was measured over a two-year period from the point of release from custody.

Over a two-year period from release, men who participated in the TSP were less likely to reoffend, reoffended less frequently, and took longer to reoffend, compared to similar males who did not participate in the TSP. These results were statistically significant and the effect sizes were very small.

Results indicated that over a two-year period following release, females who participated in the TSP reoffended less frequently, compared to similar females who did not participate in the TSP. These results were statistically significant with very small effect sizes.

Impact evaluation of the TSP on prison misconduct

The prison misconduct study involved a treatment group of 13,891 adults (12,938 males, and 953 females) who participated in the TSP between 2011 and 2019.

The male headline analysis results showed that over a 6-month period after starting the TSP those who had participated were less likely to receive an adjudication compared to males who did not participate in the TSP and received an adjudication less frequently. These results had very small effect sizes and were statistically significant.

The female headline analyses showed that over a 6-month period after starting the TSP females who had participated in the TSP received any form of adjudication less frequently compared to those who did not participate in the TSP. This result had a very small effect size and was statistically significant.

Lancashire Women – Second request (2015-2021)

Lancashire Women support women involved, or at risk of involvement, in the criminal justice system. The gender specific organisation offers support around societal stigmas, housing, emotional wellbeing, education, employment, and family and relationships. This is the second JDL evaluation for Lancashire Women, looking at programme participants between 2015 and 2021.

The overall results show that those who took part in the Lancashire Women were less likely to reoffend, reoffended less frequently and took longer to reoffend than those who did not take part. These results were statistically significant.

Justice Data Lab service: available reoffending data

The Justice Data Lab team have brought in reoffending data for the second quarter of 2021 into the service. It is now possible for an organisation to submit information on the individuals it was working with up to the end of June 2021, in addition to during the years 2002 to 2020.

Pre-release access

The bulletins are produced and handled by the Ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons: Minister of State, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Special Advisers, Permanent Secretary, Deputy Head of News, 1 Director General, 6 press officers, 18 policy officials, and 5 analytical officials. Relevant Special Advisers and Private Office staff of Ministers and senior officials may have access to pre-release figures to inform briefing and handling arrangements.

Introduction

The Justice Data Lab was established in April 2013. Participating organisations supply the Justice Data Lab with details of the offenders they have worked with and information about the services they have provided. The Justice Data Lab team matches these individuals to the re-offending datasets held within the Ministry of Justice and uses statistical modeling techniques to generate a matched control group of individuals with very similar characteristics; including demographic, criminal history and employment and benefit history.

As standard, the Justice Data Lab supplies aggregate one-year proven re-offending rates for that group, and a matched control group of similar offenders. The re-offending rates for the organisation’s group and the matched control group are compared using statistical testing to assess the impact of the organisation’s work on reducing re-offending. We also include the frequency of proven re-offending over the one year as standard following feedback from users.

There are three publication types:

• A summary of the findings of the Justice Data Lab pilot to date (2nd April 2013 to 28th February 2014).

• Tailored reports about the re-offending outcomes of services or interventions delivered by each of the organisations who have requested information through the Justice Data Lab pilot. Each report is an Official Statistic and will show the results of the re-offending analysis for the particular service or intervention delivered by the organisation who delivered it.

• This month the Justice Data Lab team have also produced a document reflecting on the successes and challenges of the pilot, called “Justice Data Lab; The pilot year”. This document shares learning from the experience of running the pilot, details the future of the Justice Data Lab and demonstrates the commitment to continual improvement in the Justice Data Lab service.

For further information about the Justice Data Lab, please refer to the following guidance: http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab">www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab

Update on the Justice Data Lab Service

We are pleased to announce that the Justice Data Lab will continue to be piloted for another year. The service will continue to be free at the point of use, and the same service model will continue to operate, as detailed in our guidance. Following feedback from users, we are hoping to bring in the following improvements to the service:

• improving the Data Upload Template with further questions about referral routes to the organisation, and where the intervention or programme was received. We will release an updated version of our Data Upload Template over the next few weeks alongside updates to our guidance documents.

• providing additional metrics of re-offending in particular looking at measures of severity

• improving our underlying data, including bringing Offender Assessment (OASys) information into analyses

• taking account of area in our analysis where possible

• within a request, giving the re-offending outcomes by different demographic profiles where possible

• providing power calculations to indicate necessary sample sizes for results which are inconclusive.

These improvements are discussed in more detail in the document “Justice Data Lab; the pilot year”

Main findings to date

To date, the Justice Data Lab has received 80 requests for re-offending information, including 55 reports which have already been published. A further 2 are now complete and ready for publication, bringing the total of completed reports to 57.

To date, there have been 12 requests that could not be processed as the minimum criteria for analyses through the Data Lab had not been met, and one further request that was withdrawn by the submitting organisation. The remaining requests will be published in future monthly releases of these statistics.

Of the 2 reports being published this month:

• One report looks at the effectiveness of The Footprints Project. This analysis shows that the impact of this intervention on re-offending is currently inconclusive.

• One report looks at the effectiveness of the Family Man programme run by Safe Ground. This analysis includes offenders from the two previous Safe Ground requests published in October and November 2013. This analysis shows that the impact of this intervention on re-offending is currently inconclusive.

The bulletin is produced and handled by the Ministry’s analytical professio

These tables and Pocketbook summarise the latest information presented in Justice in Numbers in printable format. For a full explanation of each measure, sources and full time series, please visit:

https://data.justice.gov.uk/justice-in-numbers">https://data.justice.gov.uk/justice-in-numbers

The Pocketbook is designed to be printed as an A5 booklet on A4 paper but can be printed in other layouts as required. Please ensure that you have selected the appropriate print settings for your setup in order to print in an appropriate layout for your requirements.

The report is released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority. For further information about the Justice Data Lab, please refer to the guidance.

Key findings this quarter

One request is being published this quarter: Spark Inside (2016-2018).

Spark Inside

Spark Inside works with young male offenders, who are within 6 months of the end of their custodial sentence. This is the first JDL evaluation for Spark Inside, looking at programme participants between 2016 and 2018.

The overall results do not show that the programme had a statistically significant effect on a person’s reoffending behaviour. They suggest more people need to be available for analysis to determine the way in which the programme affects the one-year proven reoffending rate, the frequency of proven reoffences, and the time taken to reoffend.

Justice Data Lab service: available reoffending data

The Justice Data Lab team have brought in reoffending data for the first quarter of 2020 into the service. It is now possible for an organisation to submit information on the individuals it was working with up to the end of March 2020, in addition to during the years 2002 to 2019.

Pre-release access

The bulletin is produced and handled by the Ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons: Minister of State, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Special Advisers, Permanent Secretary, Head of News, Deputy Head of News, 2 Director Generals, 5 press officers, 3 policy officials, and 10 analytical officials.