Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will place in the Library a copy of the assessment of the Major Projects Authority on his plans for the Probation Service.

It is standard practice for the Major Projects Authority (MPA) to undertake assessments of major projects and programmes, such as the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms to the Probation Service. The MPA has had full access to the TR programme documentation, and the MPA’s assessments, which are focused on assuring delivery of the reforms, are provided in confidence to the programme leadership. In order not to prejudice commercial interests, there are no plans to publish the MPA assessment in the House of Commons Library.

The programme of reforms is on track. We are currently managing the competition which will appoint the owners of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). We have a healthy competition across all areas with over 80 bidders and an average of 4 bidders per contract package area. Bids are currently being rigorously assessed, and we are on track to announce the contract winners for each CRC by the end of 2014.