Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff are available in Wales for the community supervision of people sentenced to less than 12 months; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of provision of buildings and educational opportunities for those people.

All CRCs are contractually required to ensure that their workforce is competent and efficient and have appropriate and relevant qualifications, training and experience and to employ or engage a sufficient number of staff to deliver the services set out in their contracts.

CRCs are also contractually required to make staff aware of and attend scheduled training with respect to practices and procedures which are relevant to their roles. During the procurement and transformation processes staffing numbers, estates proposals and educational opportunities were assessed and we robustly contract manage each CRC to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and protect the public. We also ensure that all transformation plans including estates from which the services are delivered are implemented appropriately.

We are currently conducting a comprehensive review of the probation system to make sure it is reducing reoffending, protecting the public and reducing future victims. We will set out our plans after the review is concluded in April.