Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report, A thematic review of work to prepare for the unification of probation services, published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation in May 2021, what progress has been made on the development of an effective workload measurement tool for the unified probation service.

The probation Workload Measurement Tool (WMT) will be available for full use by all probation staff from the point of unification on 26 June. It will include caseloads for all staff transferring into the Probation Service from Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), which will allow managers to understand workload across the whole unified service.

In readiness for this, the WMT has been updated with a refreshed methodology determining case complexity and intensity of staff involvement to represent probation’s role to assess, protect and change to align with the aims of the unified Probation Service.

A new version of the WMT will be rolled out in 2021 to improve the speed and accuracy of workforce management, by integrating all the required information into one digital service. This will be based upon refreshed activity timings which will better reflect practice, expectations on staff and align to the unified operating model.