Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the introduction of the National Probation Service on the supervision of offenders found guilty of domestic abuse.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The National Probation Service (NPS) is responsible for initial risk assessments in all cases, including domestic abuse. Following sentence, it allocates each case either to a Community Rehabilitation Company or to the NPS itself, depending upon the assessed level of risk. The NPS is responsible for the supervision of all offenders assessed as presenting a high risk of serious harm and those who are subject to multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). These will include higher-risk and MAPPA offenders convicted for offences of domestic abuse.
The performance of the NPS is closely monitored through a set of performance measures. In addition, HM Inspectorate of Probation has carried out a series of inspections of the early implementation of the previous Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make representations to Staffordshire and West Midlands Rehabilitation Company on ensuring jobs are not lost by the planned transfer of responsibilities for probation service administration staff to Derby.
Answered by Andrew Selous
Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), including Staffordshire and West Midlands CRC, set out an agreed operating model within their bids during the Transforming Rehabilitation competition. These bids were rigorously scrutinised before contracts were awarded. A thorough evaluation process was undertaken to assess the operational viability of the bids in the wider context of public protection and reducing reoffending.
All CRCs are contractually required to maintain a professional and appropriately skilled workforce to deliver the services set out in their contracts. The MoJ closely monitors the performance of CRCs, in line with government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the Staffordshire and West Midlands Rehabilitation Company's use of video calls in place of face-to-face contact with offenders.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The bid made by the Reducing Reoffending Partnership for the contract to run the Staffordshire and West Midlands Community Rehabilitation Company (SWM CRC) included changes to the way services are delivered, such as the introduction of biometric kiosk reporting. These changes do not specifically include the use of video calls in place of face-to-face interviews with offenders, and we are not currently aware of any plans SWM CRC may have to introduce them in the future.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of part-time fee-earning recorders who worked in courts in each of the last five years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The number of Recorders in post is published by the Judicial Office every year. The report for the number of Recorders in post as at 1 April 2015 will be available on 30 July at: www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications/.
As at: | Numbers in post |
1 April 2014 | 1126 |
1 April 2013 | 1196 |
1 April 2012 | 1155 |
1 April 2011 | 1020 |
1 April 2010 | 1233 |
The number of recorders who sit in court each year may differ from the number in post.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the Probation Service has spent on agency staff in each month of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Selous
Agency staff may be used to fill business-critical posts and support essential front-line services, where they can provide a fast, flexible and efficient way to obtain necessary skills that are not currently available in-house.
The requested information has not been collated centrally and obtaining it would involve a detailed analysis of archived probation trust data. This would be a significant exercise and could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance his Department issues on the use of agency staff by the Probation Service.
Answered by Andrew Selous
In appropriate circumstances, the National Probation Service may use agency staff to fill business-critical posts and essential frontline services where they can provide a fast, flexible and efficient way to obtain necessary skills that are not currently available in-house.
Guidance on use of agency staff by the National Probation Service is contained in a number of documents, including Probation Instructions relating to vetting and authorisation procedures.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the average caseload of Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) staff in each month since the CRC was established.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The Probation Service transitioned to new structures on 1 June following thorough business readiness testing which demonstrated that NOMS was ready to make that transition at that time. The new CRCs are sufficiently resourced to deliver their core duties and we will ensure that there is enough capacity to meet demand within the new system. Offender management statistics are published quarterly. The statistical bulletin for the quarter ending 30 June 2014 will be published at the end of October 2014, and the bulletin for the quarter ending 30 September will be published at the end of January 2015.
Pending transactions – where a case is in the process of being transferred to another part of the Service for further action – are by their nature fluid. These cases are managed on a daily basis to ensure they are transferred as efficiently as possible. The figure varies from day to day and is not published.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the cost of all voluntary redundancies made in the probation service since the establishment of the Community Rehabilitation Company.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The National Agreement on Staff Transfer and Protections includes an enhanced national voluntary redundancy scheme which applies up to and including 31 March 2016. Decisions including agreement on applications for voluntary redundancy have to be made and agreed by 31 March 2015. The costs of all exits under this scheme will be met from the Department’s Modernisation Fund, which is used to support sustainable reductions in resource requirements.
Figures relating to the numbers of redundancies will in due course be published in the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will commission an investigation into the effect of reforms to the probation service since May 2010 on the overall efficiency of the justice system.
Answered by Andrew Selous
Public Protection is a key priority for this Government. Given the social and financial costs incurred by high reoffending rates, it is imperative that we act now to help offenders turn their backs on crime. With more than half a million crimes committed each year by those who have broken the law before, the status quo is not an option. It is for this reason that the Government set out in the Coalition Agreement our commitment to reform offender rehabilitation services.
The Government does of course understand the need to implement these reforms in a manner that ensures that public safety is maintained. This is why we have been clear that we will manage these changes in a controlled way and will not proceed until we are satisfied that it is safe to do so. We continue to monitor the performance of the system.