Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of real-terms pay on the recruitment and retention of probation staff since 2010.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to supporting probation staff and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our position in terms of comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike a balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.
In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.
We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions to agree a good outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our prioritises and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.
We are committed to providing manageable workloads for staff. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting resources towards our most vital work. We are investing in probation - onboarding 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year. We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades.
There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve recruitment and retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.
Leaving rates to June 2025 can be found in table 10a, table 10b and table 11 of our published statistics. The overall Probation Service leaving rate of 9.0% (taken from T10a) in the year to the end of June 2025 was 1.7 percentage points lower than it was in March 2024. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689f34791fedc616bb133a86/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-jun-2025_final.ods.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of real-terms pay reductions on the recruitment and retention of probation staff since 2010.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to supporting probation staff and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our position in terms of comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike a balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.
In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.
We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions to agree a good outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our prioritises and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.
We are committed to providing manageable workloads for staff. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting resources towards our most vital work. We are investing in probation - onboarding 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year. We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades.
There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve recruitment and retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.
Leaving rates to June 2025 can be found in table 10a, table 10b and table 11 of our published statistics. The overall Probation Service leaving rate of 9.0% (taken from T10a) in the year to the end of June 2025 was 1.7 percentage points lower than it was in March 2024. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689f34791fedc616bb133a86/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-jun-2025_final.ods.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to review the pay structure for probation officers.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to supporting probation staff and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our position in terms of comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike a balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.
In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.
We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions to agree a good outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our prioritises and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.
We are committed to providing manageable workloads for staff. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting resources towards our most vital work. We are investing in probation - onboarding 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year. We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades.
There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve recruitment and retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.
Leaving rates to June 2025 can be found in table 10a, table 10b and table 11 of our published statistics. The overall Probation Service leaving rate of 9.0% (taken from T10a) in the year to the end of June 2025 was 1.7 percentage points lower than it was in March 2024. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689f34791fedc616bb133a86/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-jun-2025_final.ods.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time taken was to process a grant of probate in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes average waiting times for processing grants of probate here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) currently advises applicants to expect probate applications to be processed within the target time of 12 weeks, although this could take longer if a user needs to provide additional information. Currently, the average waiting time is under 5 weeks.
There are 1.2 FTE Registrars and 2 FTE Deputy Registrars currently in post. There are no vacancies, and capacity is sufficient to meet the requirement for these roles.
One of the main lessons learned following the Reform of the probate service in 2019 was that the centralisation of administrative work alongside the digitisation of the service led to the loss of experienced staff and a training gap for the staff in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres. These issues have since been overcome and average processing times continue to improve.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of probate office closures on application processing times.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes average waiting times for processing grants of probate here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) currently advises applicants to expect probate applications to be processed within the target time of 12 weeks, although this could take longer if a user needs to provide additional information. Currently, the average waiting time is under 5 weeks.
There are 1.2 FTE Registrars and 2 FTE Deputy Registrars currently in post. There are no vacancies, and capacity is sufficient to meet the requirement for these roles.
One of the main lessons learned following the Reform of the probate service in 2019 was that the centralisation of administrative work alongside the digitisation of the service led to the loss of experienced staff and a training gap for the staff in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres. These issues have since been overcome and average processing times continue to improve.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many District Probate (a) Registrars and (b) Deputy Registrars are employed; and whether there are vacancies in those roles.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes average waiting times for processing grants of probate here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) currently advises applicants to expect probate applications to be processed within the target time of 12 weeks, although this could take longer if a user needs to provide additional information. Currently, the average waiting time is under 5 weeks.
There are 1.2 FTE Registrars and 2 FTE Deputy Registrars currently in post. There are no vacancies, and capacity is sufficient to meet the requirement for these roles.
One of the main lessons learned following the Reform of the probate service in 2019 was that the centralisation of administrative work alongside the digitisation of the service led to the loss of experienced staff and a training gap for the staff in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres. These issues have since been overcome and average processing times continue to improve.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what her Department's target processing time is for probate applications in the next financial year.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes average waiting times for processing grants of probate here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) currently advises applicants to expect probate applications to be processed within the target time of 12 weeks, although this could take longer if a user needs to provide additional information. Currently, the average waiting time is under 5 weeks.
There are 1.2 FTE Registrars and 2 FTE Deputy Registrars currently in post. There are no vacancies, and capacity is sufficient to meet the requirement for these roles.
One of the main lessons learned following the Reform of the probate service in 2019 was that the centralisation of administrative work alongside the digitisation of the service led to the loss of experienced staff and a training gap for the staff in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres. These issues have since been overcome and average processing times continue to improve.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to help reduce (a) delays and (b) service disruptions for Probation Workers caused by (i) staffing levels and (ii) office closures.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Staffing levels are regularly monitored and analysed, and we remain committed to providing manageable workloads for staff, as well as ensuring continuity of service. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting the most vital work are priorities.
There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.
We are investing in probation - onboarding 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year. We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades to reduce the time it takes to fill operational roles.
This Government is investing up to £300 million in prison & probation maintenance for 2025-26, to keep the estate safe and secure. This is an increase in spending on 2024-25, which will support essential repairs, ongoing maintenance, and efforts to minimise future closures.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to (a) prevent experienced probation officers leaving the service and (b) ensure the sustainability of that service.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve recruitment and retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.
Leaving rates to June 2025 can be found in table 11 of our published statistics. The Probation Officer leaving rate of 6.3% (taken from T11) in the year to the end of June 2025 was 1.7 percentage points lower than it was in the year to the end of March 2024. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689f34791fedc616bb133a86/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-jun-2025_final.ods.
Since the launch of the HMPPS retention strategy, toolkit and exit interview process in 2021, a new retention oversight process (retention deep dives) was piloted in August 2022 and launched in Probation in April 2023 to target those Probation Delivery Units with the highest attrition. We are also currently working with Trade Unions to secure the best outcome in terms of the pay award for Probation.
We continue to invest in probation, and plan to onboard 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year.
We are committed to ensuring that workloads for probation staff are sustainable and ensure protection of the public. That is why we have commissioned the Our Future Probation Service Programme to deploy new technologies, reform processes, and ensure prioritisation of probation staff time.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to ensure the safety of probation staff working with high-risk offenders.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The safety, health and wellbeing of all probation staff is vitally important to us.
Across the Probation Service, generic risk assessments and Safe Working Practice documents are in place. These documents outline foreseeable risks and detail the control measures implemented to mitigate those risks as far as is reasonably practicable. The Policy Instruction 12/2015 – Arrangements for the Management of Violence and Aggression – remains in effect, supported by the ‘Managing Violence and Aggression’ training.
Personal safety devices are in place across the business, and we are currently rolling out upgraded Personal Safety Devices (PeopleSafe) across regions. These enhanced devices incorporate improved functionality and reliability, informed by user feedback and operational insights gained from the previous models which are currently in place.
We are currently undertaking a site-by-site review of physical security across the Probation Service to identify any gaps in security and will press ahead to ensure all sites meet the required standard for facilitating high-risk supervision. A range of safety measures will be looked at, including closed circuit television, alarm systems, intercoms and reception screening.
Additionally, the Home Visits Policy Framework forms part of the arrangements to help minimise risks to staff undertaking home visits in accordance with the Probation Service’s duty to ensure the safety of its employees so far as reasonably practicable. All those who undertake a home visit must conduct a pre visit risk assessment, which must be authorised by the line manager prior to the visit. The Framework can be accessed by the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-visits-policy-framework.