Oral Answers to Questions

Meg Hillier Excerpts

Tuesday 13th November 2018 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)]

1. What estimate he has made of the proportion of offenders on probation being supported by community rehabilitation companies.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Rory Stewart)]

The CRCs currently supervise just over 59% of all offenders and the National Probation Service supervises 41%.

[Meg Hillier]

The CRC contract has been a dog’s breakfast, so what is the Minister going to do to make sure that CRCs work better to support people, particularly those on shorter sentences?

[Rory Stewart]

First, I pay tribute to the Public Accounts Committee for its work in looking at exactly this subject. In order to work better, we are consulting on having a closer relationship between the National Probation Service and the CRCs. Secondly, we are making sure we put much more focus on the basics, by which we mean the risk assessment, the plan for probation and regular contact.