Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent cross-departmental discussions he has had on reducing pressures on the Probation Service.

We have unified the Probation Service and injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer. We have recruited a record-breaking 2,500 trainee probation officers over the last two years and we plan to recruit a further 1,500 by March 2023.

Recruitment of key operational roles has been centralised to accelerate recruitment in 6 priority regions, including London. There are schemes available to provide financial support to encourage new and existing staff to move permanently to areas with the most significant staffing challenges.

In collaboration with local probation regions, the Department for Work and Pensions and Career Transition Partnerships, local outreach has increased to improve awareness of Probation and the roles available. Marketing campaigns have been rolled out to attract undergraduate/students to work in part time roles.

The Probation Service is also committed to widening routes to achieve probation qualifications by developing pathways for existing staff, as well as creating routes for those without a graduate degree.