Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Probation Officer recruitment annex: June 2021, published on 19 August 2021, what his planned timetable is for releasing updated statistics for required staffing levels following the unification of the probation service.

The next publication date of the HMPPS workforce statistics is 18 November 2021 and will include an updated Probation Recruitment Annex. This publication will include data up to 30 September 2021. It will cover data on Full Time Equivalent of Band 4 probation Officers in post in Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, the required staffing levels, and the difference between required staffing and staff in post. It will also include the headcount and Full Time Equivalent number of Trainee Probation Officers, and also of Staff who have successfully qualified on the PQiP training course but are waiting to take up a substantive Probation Officer post, or are not in a Probation Officer post for other reasons. It is planned to include target staffing levels and the difference between required staffing and staff in post. The Probation Service would expect the required staffing to change over time in response to implementation of future operating models, responding to COVID related impacts and changes in the Probation caseload.