Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether sickness rates in probation trusts in England and Wales have risen since January 2013.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Information on the average levels of absence due to staff sickness in the Probation trusts is published annually, at national level, in the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts: Management Information Addendum.
A link to the latest published report for FY 2012/13 is provided below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225225/mi-addendum.pdf
The NOMS Annual Report and Accounts: Management Information Addendum for FY 2013/14 will be published on 31st July 2014.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the payment by results pilot in HMP Doncaster has been terminated.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The HMP Doncaster Payment by Results (PbR) pilot was established to test the introduction of PbR to reduce reoffending, in response to commitments made in the Coalition Agreement. The pilot has been running since October 2011, with offenders released from Doncaster prison given additional rehabilitation support to help turn their lives around.
The pilot predates the Transforming Rehabilitation programme and while it has provided important learning to inform our plans, the delivery model at HMP Doncaster is not fully aligned with these reforms. As a result, we have decided to bring the pilot to a close, to help ensure the effective transition to the new model for rehabilitation services and offender management in the South Yorkshire Contract Package Area. No further participants will enter the pilot beyond the end of 2014.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when supervision of prisoners on release serving less than 12 months will begin in England and Wales.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The extension of statutory licence conditions and rehabilitation supervision to offenders sentenced to less than 12 months imprisonment is subject to the commencement of the relevant provisions in the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014. This change to the sentencing framework is a core element of the Ministry of Justice's Transforming Rehabilitation Programme. Ministry of Justice officials are currently managing the transitional and implementation arrangements for the Programme, including the timing for commencement of this part of the Act.
We are on course to award and mobilise the new contracts for delivering rehabilitation services by 2015.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the assessment and allocation tools to be used by probation staff in England and Wales from 1 April 2014 have been finalised.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
We are carrying out extensive local testing of the key elements of the new Transforming Rehabilitation systems across a number of Probation Trusts. Findings are helping us to refine the associated tools and guidance. We have now completed testing of the new Risk of Serious Recidivism (RSR) tool, which will be used to inform the allocation of cases to new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) or the National Probation Service (NPS), and we have begun the roll out of the current version of the tool to all Trusts.