Some things I’ve learnt in the past few weeks:

• There are 7 million adults in the UK who have a criminal conviction and are in work.
• 83% of these are male.
• 25 is the age when most of them stop offending.
• The most commonly reported crime is vandalism.
• In 2004/2005, the police detected only 26% of reported crime.
• In April 2006, 679,000 job vacancies were reported to the DWP.
• 40% of these were classed as “hard to fill”.
• The main reason HR professionals give for not employing an offender is that they feel they are risking their career.
• The main reason HR professionals give for considering an offender for a job is that they have the right skills for that job.
• 70% of offenders have a literacy rate below that of a nine year old.
• Getting offenders into education and employment reduces re-offending by up half to two-thirds

*EDIT* Got figures wrong for reducing re-offending rate. They were even better than I remembered.