Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of private sector probation companies.

The Government has been clear that the performance of Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) in England and Wales has been disappointing and needs to improve. We have taken decisive action to end current CRC contracts early and made changes to existing contracts to improve service delivery. We have also conducted a public consultation on proposals for future arrangements and are carefully considering the responses we received.

We are committed to developing a more stable and resilient system, where public, private and voluntary sectors providers can work together effectively to protect the public and tackle reoffending. We will set out our plans later this year.