Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he plans to take to encourage (a) private sector and (b) third sector involvement in the delivery of probation services.

Probation reform remains a top priority for the Department. We set out plans last year to strengthen probation by building on the changes introduced by Transforming Rehabilitation, while addressing some of the challenges in the system. Under these plans, contracts for Community Rehabilitation Companies will end in June 2021. We are currently reflecting on the implications of COVID-19 for the future probation model, and the competitive process for Probation Delivery Partner contracts was suspended on 26 May 2020 to allow time for this consideration. We will provide an update shortly.