Ex-offenders: Reintegration

Lord Fox Excerpts

Thursday 15th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for asking that question. I am very aware of this issue. I was under the impression that the practice of releasing on Fridays had been substantially reduced. However, if that is not the case, I will write to him, but I understand the point he is making. I thought there had been provisions made in recent legislation to stop this.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, the Probation Service is an important link in this chain, so could the Minister please update your Lordships’ House on progress on recruiting the many more additional probation officers that we need in order to handle the workload and the important job that they do?

[Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab)]

Yes, I absolutely understand the point that the noble Lord, Lord Fox, is making. Last year, the Government recruited 1,000 new probation officers; in the current year, we aim to recruit 1,300 officers and my understanding is that we are on target to achieve that. Of course, it takes two or three years to train probation officers so that they can get the relevant experience and confidence, and that process is ongoing. We absolutely want to revitalise the Probation Service. That is absolutely central to our ambitions for greater use of community sentences in future.