Probation: Disciplinary Proceedings

(asked on 24th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many probation officers were placed under investigation for (a) less than one month, (b) between one and three months, (c) between three and six months, (d) between six and 12 months and (e) over 12 months for alleged (i) misconduct and (ii) gross misconduct in each of the last three years.


Answered by
Robert Buckland Portrait
Robert Buckland
This question was answered on 1st July 2019

Table 1a - Number of Probation Officers1,2 (headcount) subject to Conduct and Discipline investigations due to Misconduct, by length of investigation3, 2015/16 to 2017/18

2015/16

2016/17

2017/18

Less than one month

4

8

6

From one up to three months

4

4

4

From three up to six months

0

~

~

From six up to twelve months

0

0

0

Over 12 months

0

~

0

Table 1b - Number of Probation Officers1,2 (headcount) subject to Conduct and Discipline investigations due to Gross Misconduct, by length of investigation3, 2015/16 to 2017/18

2015/16

2016/17

2017/18

Less than one month

0

~

~

From one up to three months

9

4

~

From three up to six months

~

0

~

From six up to twelve months

0

~

0

Over 12 months

0

0

0

Notes: 1. Qualified band 4 probation officers only. Figures exclude Senior Probation Officers. 2. Staff with at least one conduct and discipline case concluded during the year.
  1. Staff with no end date in the data, indicating open cases, have been excluded.
'~ denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer or other values which would allow values of 2 or fewer to be derived by subtraction. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998.

Investigations follow the conduct and discipline policy, which ensures that they are carried out fairly, and are also robust. Investigations may involve multiple charges and may have multiple outcomes for different parts of the case.

Investigations into staff conduct are designed to establish the truth of the case and to determine whether conduct and discipline action is recommended.

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