“The number of offenders with more than 50 previous convictions who were convicted but spared jail rose from 1,299 in 2007 to 3,196 in 2018”

That was the claim from Boris Johnson on his first trip to Manchester as Prime Minister.

It’s based on evidence extracted from the Ministry of Justice by Conservative MP Neil O’Brien. The stats show that the number of so-called “super prolific” offenders who were convicted but not sent to prison did indeed rise between 2007 and 2018 as Mr Johnson claims.

But the Prime Minister left out some key details.

The number of super prolific offenders who were sent to prison also rose over the same period: from 987 in 2007 to 3,148 in 2018.

And the proportion of super prolific offenders who were not sent to prison has fallen over that time, from 57 per cent to 55 per cent.

Put another way, that means someone with more than 50 offences to their name is slightly more likely to be imprisoned today than they were in 2007.

FactCheck verdict

Boris Johnson is right that the number of offenders with more than 50 previous convictions who were convicted but spared jail rose between 2007 and 2018.

However, he didn’t mention some crucial details:

• The number of “super prolific” offenders who were sent to prison also rose in that time.
• Someone with more than 50 previous convictions is slightly more likely to be sent to prison today than they were in 2007.