Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the current number of vacancies is in each community rehabilitation company.

Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts require each CRC to maintain a sufficient level of staff and ensure that its workforce is competent and adequately trained. CRCs have the authority to manage staff numbers as per their business and operating models. Robust assurance of performance is provided through operational contract management backed up by regular Operational Assurance audits, and Internal Audit activity as required. There is regular monitoring of service delivery, including a focus on validating published performance management information. CRC performance information showing services levels against a range of measures is released quarterly as part of the Community Performance Quarterly Management Information.

We take seriously concerns raised by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) and others over staffing levels, particularly for resettlement work with prisoners nearing the end of their custodial term. The contract changes we agreed with CRCs last year include £22m per year in additional funding for Through The Gate services, which will mean approximately 500 more staff working with offenders in prison after April 2019. We are currently proposing further changes to probation after the existing CRC contracts come to an end in 2020. The proposed changes include measures to ensure the probation workforce is better supported to build their careers and deliver a high-quality service to offenders, such as introducing a standard training framework for staff and a national professional register to recognise the specialism and value of probation work.