Written question asked by Mark Oaten (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 10 February 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 23 February 2009. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Monday, 23 February 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Offenders: Personal Records

Question: (2) how many offenders there were on the Offenders Index when it was last updated.

Answer: There were about eight million offenders on the Offenders Index database in December 2006. The Department no longer uses the Offender Index to provide routine data on reoffending and criminal history. We are currently analysing the final cohort of offenders extracted from the Offenders Index which are based on data up to December 2006. The Department has no plans for a further update but will retain the data after completion and publication of the analysis.Since 2005, the Ministry of Justice has been using data extracted from its Police National Computer database to provide the published figures on reoffending.

Secondary information