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 probation staff that have taken voluntary redundancy 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, what estimate he has made of the number of pending cases at the Community Rehabilitation Company in each month since it 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, how many hearings have taken place in each magistrates' court in England in each of the last four years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
Magistrates’ courts hear criminal, civil and enforcement cases. Family matters are dealt with under the jurisdiction of the Single Family Court, although they may be heard in a magistrates’ courts building. Criminal, civil and enforcement matters are recorded on the Libra case management system and total hearings for those are provided in the attached table. Family hearings are recorded on a separate system and to extract and validate which family hearings took place in magistrates’ courts would incur disproportionate costs.
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 recent discussions he has had with magistrates regarding delays at magistrates' courts.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is committed to the continuous improvement of performance in Magistrates’ Courts; this includes minimising delays in hearing cases. The performance of Magistrates’ Courts depends upon the performance of the criminal justice system as a whole, and HMCTS works closely with other agencies in the criminal justice system, including the police and the CPS, in order to keep delays to a minimum.
My officials have had regular discussions with magistrates. The Chief Executive and HMCTS Directors meet on a quarterly basis with the Chairs of the Magistrates’ Association (MA) and the National Bench Chairmen’s Forum (NBCF) to discuss various issues, which include performance in the Magistrates’ Courts. The performance of the Magistrates’ Courts has also recently been discussed at meetings of the Senior Presiding Judge’s Magistrates’ Liaison Group (MLG) the membership of which includes both the judiciary and senior officials from HMCTS. At a regional level, Judicial Business Groups (JBG) and, more locally, Judicial Leadership Groups ( (JLG) provide a further forum where the judiciary and my officials can discuss the performance of local Magistrates’ Courts and, where necessary, the judiciary can put in place local listing arrangements to tackle delay.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether staff working for community rehabilitation companies will be able to (a) recall offenders and (b) write parole reports without consulting National Probation Service staff.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The decision whether to recall an offender to custody continues to rest with the Secretary of State. Where a warning does not appear sufficient or appropriate, CRCs will be required to refer potential breaches to the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) with a breach report and a recommendation on the action to be taken. NOMS will take the final decision on behalf of the Secretary of State. The enforcement process for CRCs and the National Probation Service was described in detail in our published Target Operating Model.
Offenders serving indeterminate sentences for public protection will be managed by the National Probation Service: the arrangements for Parole Board hearings during their recall period will remain unchanged. If recalled to custody, offenders allocated to the CRCs who are serving determinate sentences will continue to be managed by the CRC, unless their risk of serious harm increases to “high”. CRCs will need to provide information, as appropriate, to support the recall process and consideration of re-release.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether (a) Serco and (b) G4S will be permitted to bid for community rehabilitation company contracts.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
G4S and Serco decided to withdraw from the competition to select lead providers of rehabilitation services.
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 he plans to allocate National Probation Service staff to new community rehabilitation companies.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
On 1 June, as part of our ongoing Transforming Rehabilitation Programme of reform, the new National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) formally commenced operation. All probation staff were allocated to either the NPS or CRC and many have been working in their new teams since April.
The probation workforce was allocated to the new organisations in line with future capacity needs. This was calculated on the basis of existing staffing needs for the different operational functions. The process was based on an objective consideration of the future functions and offender groups that each organisation will be responsible for.
There are no plans to allocate NPS staff to CRCs. However to help ensure effective working relationships between the bodies, we are in favour of an arrangement that would facilitate interchange between the NPS and CRCs where it was in the interests of both employers.
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 recent discussions he has had on tendering for contracts to run community rehabilitation companies.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The tendering process is being run in accordance with standard Government procurement practice. Ministers are being kept updated on progress and throughout the programme have engaged in discussions with a wide range of stakeholders. Bids to run the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are expected in June 2014 and the contract winners for each Community Rehabilitation Company will be announced by the end of 2014.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether community rehabilitation companies have access to National Probation Service case records.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Staff in the National Probation Service (NPS) and the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) have, and will continue to have, necessary access to each other's case records. NPS staff are able to read all CRC records and update any case they are working on. CRC staff will be able to see and update records that relate to offenders they are working with.
Asked by: Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the National Probation Service will have access to case records of community rehabilitation companies.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Staff in the National Probation Service (NPS) and the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) have, and will continue to have, necessary access to each other's case records. NPS staff are able to read all CRC records and update any case they are working on. CRC staff will be able to see and update records that relate to offenders they are working with.