Essex Community Rehabilitation Company

(asked on 2nd June 2015) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the budgeted annual expenditure is of the Essex Community Rehabilitation Company for this financial year; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Andrew Selous Portrait
Andrew Selous
Second Church Estates Commissioner
This question was answered on 8th June 2015

On 1 February 2015, ownership of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) transitioned to new providers. CRCs are now separate, private entities, contracted by the Department to provide specific services and as such are responsible for determining their budgets, staffing levels and staff salaries. As they are autonomous organisations, the MoJ no longer holds details of their budgeted annual expenditure.

In terms of staffing, while CRCs are contractually required to have sufficient suitably qualified and competent staff, they are responsible for determining their own staffing levels and recruitment. No Chief Executives and only a small number of staff at Paybands A-D left their CRC posts during January 2015 while CRCs were still under public ownership. Since 1 February 2015, staffing has been a matter for CRC owners. The Department has not issued guidance to CRCs on recruitment.

Following the transfer of ownership in February 2015, staff remuneration is now a matter for CRC providers. The salary of the Chief Executive of Essex CRC during the period 1 June 2014 to 31 January 2015 was in the range £90,000-£95,000. The governance structure of the Community Rehabilitation Companies did not include a position of Chairman during that period.

The National Probation Service (NPS) may use agency staff to fill business-critical posts and essential frontline services where they can provide a fast, flexible and efficient way to obtain necessary skills that are not currently available in-house. The Department has issued a range of guidance (for example Probation Instructions) on the use of agency staff by the National Probation Service.

Since January 2015, official discussions continue with CRCs as part of the contract management process.

Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published quarterly.

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