Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what training Community Rehabilitation Company staff receive on assessing the risk of harm and threat to the public from offenders on supervision.

Public protection is our priority and we continue to work closely with probation providers to maintain appropriate staffing levels and to rehabilitate offenders effectively.

Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and the National Probation Service are required to ensure that staff authorised as ‘Responsible Officers’ have the requisite skills to manage offenders and undertake relevant statutory functions, including responding to and managing changes in an offender’s behaviour that indicate the risk of serious harm is increasing.

The ‘Probation Practice' competence framework outlines the minimum necessary skills an offender manager must demonstrate in order to be authorised as a ‘Responsible Officer’.

Training programmes provided or commissioned by the CRC in order to authorise staff as ‘Responsible Officers’ need to evidence how the programme aligns with these minimum criteria.