Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many stress-related sick day absences were recorded for probation staff in Greater London in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.

The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including the number of working days lost for Probation Service staff by structure/division. The latest publication covers data up to 30^th September 2023.

Data for the number of probation staff who were absent due to stress-related sickness in Greater London is provided in table 1 below.

Table 1: Number of working days lost due to stress for all Probation Service staff¹ in London, 01 January to 31 December 2021-2022 and 01 January to 30 September 2023

(Based on full time equivalence)

Notes:

1. Includes all staff employed in the Probation Service. A small number of staff in the Probation Service do not have probation grades.

2. In late June 2021, more than 7,000 staff from private sector Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) came together with probation staff already in the public sector in the new Probation Service

3. Latest published data is up to 30 September 2023 and so 2023 is not a full calendar year.

(p) Figures relating to current financial year are provisional and may be subject to change in future iterations of this publication.

We are focused on ensuring our staff have the support they need to manage workplace stress, including support for staff and managers such as Occupational Health and the Employee Assistance Programme. Staff are also able to access additional support through staff networks, staff support leads and the HMPPS network of Mental Health Allies.

Recruitment and retention remain a priority across the Probation Service. We have accelerated recruitment of trainee Probation Officers (PQiPs) to increase staffing levels, particularly in Probation Delivery Units (PDUs) with the most significant staffing challenges. As a result, over 4,000 PQiPs joined the service between 2020/21 and 2022/23 which we anticipate will start to directly impact reduction of caseloads. We continue to run centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions to help bolster the number of applications and improve time to hire for key operational roles.

The Probation Service is in its second year of a multi-year pay deal for staff. Salary values of all pay bands will increase each year, targeted at key operational grades to improve a challenging recruitment and retention position.