MoJ estimates that the economic and social cost of reoffending by adult offenders was £20.9 billion in 2024–25.21 The Probation Service aims to reduce reoffending and protect the public. However, offender outcomes, such as reoffending rates, have deteriorated since unification of the service in 2021. The reoffending rate for adults supervised by the Probation Service, either released from custody or starting a court order, was 36% for the cohorts supervised in July to September 2023 (latest data available), five percentage points higher than 31% for the cohorts supervised in April to June 2021. The average number of reoffences per reoffender also increased from 3.8 to 5.0 reoffences across the same period. There were 770 offenders charged with a Serious Further Offence while under probation in 2023–24, 55% more than in 2020–21. And the number of prisoners recalled to prison is at an all-time high. At the end of March 2025, the recall prison population was 13,583, accounting for 15% of the prison population, a 49% increase since June 2021.22