3,000 crimes by re-offenders

Re-offending was on the up in North Kirklees.

And the number of young offenders who go on to commit crime again is on the rise – but the overall figure for juveniles and adults is dropping.

The figures, released by the Ministry of Justice, show the percentage of all offenders who re-offended dropped from 29 per cent in 2007/2008 to 25.7 per cent in 2010/11.

But figures for only juveniles who re-offended have risen in Kirklees to 35 per cent in 10/11 compared to 33 per cent in 08/09.

West Yorkshire Probation Trust oversees the services for adult offenders.

Head of Kirklees Probation Gini Whitehead said: “We know that people don’t change their behaviour overnight, but we are proud of our successes in consistently reducing re-offending.”

She added: “Cutting crime is only possible through commitment and hard work and cannot be achieved in isolation.

“We recognise that there is always more we can do and together with our local partners we will continue to develop new initiatives and work closely to deliver further reductions in re-offending and protect our local communities.”

In 2010/2011 all those who re-offended in Kirklees committed 3,097 offences compared to 4,477 offences in the previous period.