"Encouraging"? In what sense pray, Justice Secretary?

From the BBC:

Between September 2008 and March 2010 Peterborough had a reconviction rate of 41.6%, which was considerably higher than the national average of 37.3%, according to the MoJ figures. Since the new scheme began at the prison in September 2010 the reconviction rate has fallen to 39.2% in the period up to March 2012.

At Doncaster Prison while the overall trend for reoffending is down over time, results show its pilot has proved to be less successful since it was launched in October 2011. The re-conviction rate up to March 2012 was 41.1% - lower than the 41.6% rate between October 2009 and March 2010 and the rate of 46% in the period October 2008 to March 2009. But this was higher than the 39.8% recorded in the period October 2010 to March 2011".

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said the interim figures were "encouraging".

He couldn't possibly mean "I consider the snapshot statistics that I now have for one of them provides ample, irrefutable and compelling evidence for my bringing in my 'outsourced rehabilitation revolution' as quickly as possible, an intention I announced last October?"*:

"Peterborough, the model I'm looking at, is actually very encouraging indeed," he said.

The [Peterborough] scheme provided offenders with help as they prepared for release from jail and then access to services they needed outside prison, including housing, employment and financial services.

Grayling told a meeting hosted by the Civitas thinktank in London that the schemes opened up the market to rehabilitation providers in the voluntary and private sectors so they could innovate. He said a new approach was needed because of stubbornly high rates of reoffending.

"Britain's problem is less about offending and more about reoffending," he said, citing the ministry's new research.

* Daily Telegraph 22 October 2012 We will 'push ahead' with prisoner rehabilitation plans before pilot is finished, Grayling says

Mr Grayling said that he was so "encouraged" by what he had seen in Peterborough that he was giving the green light now to a national roll-out.