Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that probation services maintain their services during the covid-19 pandemic.

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has taken steps to ensure probation services are maintained, focussing resources on public protection, balancing the risks of spreading the virus and the need to protect our staff, offenders and those they come into contact with.

During the pandemic probation officers will prioritise resource into supervising in person those who pose the very highest risk.

Face-to-face contact will remain for terrorists, offenders without a phone and prison leavers reporting for their initial appointment. Doorstep visits will be the default option for all other high-risk offenders and medium-risk offenders with domestic abuse or other safeguarding issues. This will involve a phone call with the offender visible to their probation officer. Video and voice calls will be used in addition.

Lower-risk offenders will now be supervised more frequently via telephone or video messaging. If staff believe it is the right thing to do, offenders can always be recalled to prison.