Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that National Probation Service staff are paid their contractual increments on time.

In 2018 agreement was reached with National Probation Service (NPS) Trade Unions on pay modernisation. This replaces automatic pay progression with a new scheme that will link pay to professional development. Development of this scheme has been delayed.

Clearly, this is a scheme that all parties want to get right and therefore we are working with Trade Union colleagues to implement it as soon as possible.

We are committed to ensuring that NPS staff receive their annual pay award at the earliest possible point during 2020/21. When the pay award is made, it will be backdated to 1 April 2020.