Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation’s report, A thematic review of the quality and effectiveness of probation services recovering from the impact of exceptional delivery models introduced owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, published on 25 February 2021, what steps he is taking to resolve the backlogs of (a) unpaid work and (b) accredited programmes.

We welcome the HMIP thematic review, which provides a useful opportunity to reflect on the successes from the Exceptional Delivery Models in place due to the pandemic. As we continue to recover, our plan must continue to be agile, responding to wider trends in infection rates and other indicators.

The probation service has been maximising the delivery of Unpaid Work as far as possible in line with social distancing restrictions. Offenders have been working on projects in the outdoors and which support the UK’s recovery from Covid-19. Despite this, national restrictions and the need to maintain the safety of staff and offenders limited Unpaid Work delivery capacity for much of the last year. This has resulted in an increase in the number of outstanding cases. We have established an Unpaid Work Scrutiny panel, chaired by the Chief Probation Officer, with representatives from MoJ, HMPPS, HMCTS and the judiciary, focussed on this issue. The Panel is responsible for breaking down the backlog and making proposals about how the different types of cases can most effectively be dealt with, including which should return to court and how that process can be managed without placing undue pressure on the courts.

The delivery of Accredited Programmes has also been affected by the pandemic, with group work necessarily suspended between March and September 2020. Responding to this challenge, we developed alternative delivery formats, endorsed by the Correctional Services Accreditation and Advice Panel (CSAAP), to enable continued delivery of Accredited Programmes remotely. In September, we reinstated in person group work but, due to the prevalence of the virus, it was again paused in January 2021. We are reviewing this weekly as conditions continue to improve. However they are delivered, offenders who pose the highest risk of harm are being prioritised for Accredited Programmes. Where it is not possible to provide an Accredited Programme as we normally would, offenders receive alternative rehabilitative interventions from their Offender Manager. Additional recording guidance has been issued to probation providers to ensure that risk management and rehabilitative work is clearly recorded. Work is underway to increase capacity of programme provision as we recover from the pandemic, including recruiting and training more staff, and restarting socially distanced group delivery as soon as it is safe to do so.