Out of Court Disposals: Why We Need Better Data on Offences Resolved Out of Court, and How To Get It – The Centre for Public Data (February 2023)

Published:

Summary:

The Centre for Public Data has published a short report with recommendation concerned with the key gaps in data available in regards to Out of Court Disposals

Description:

The Centre for Public Data have published Out of Court Disposals: Why We Need Better Data on Offences Resolved Out of Court, and How To Get It (February 2023). From research and conversations with justice experts, the Centre for Public Data were highlighted some basic data gaps around who received out court disposals, what types are issues and the impact on reoffending. They found that those questions cannot be answered fully by the statistics currently available.
The Centre for Public Data have made three recommendations to help fill the data gaps:

  1. Better data on informal schemes (Although they make up the majority of all OOCDs, little data is published on informal OOCDs (aka diversionary schemes). Anecdotal evidence suggests that police forces use them very differently, and there is no clear national picture of what is going on).
  2. Add out of court disposals to reoffending statistics (there is currently no comprehensive national data on reoffending rates; the MoJ- proven reoffending statistics only cover cautions and disposals made in court).
  3. Publish a meaningful evaluation plan (MoJ to publish a meaningful monitoring and evaluation plan. This is an opportunity to produce much better evidence on how OOCDs are working).