Probation Service: Risk Assessment

(asked on 9th November 2022) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the quality of risk assessments made by the Probation Service.


Answered by
Damian Hinds Portrait
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
This question was answered on 16th November 2022

The quality of risk assessments is centrally assured by His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) to drive further improvement in this key area of public protection.

HMPPS’ independent internal assurance process provides annual checks of the quality of sentence management practice, including risk assessments checks. The last full audit, done in late 2021, showed that improvements were required in the quality of risk assessments . The 2022 audit is underway, the results of which will be known and fully considered in February 2023.

Probation regions also complete their own assurance of the quality of practice, including risk assessments, using a specialised audit tool. The HMPPS assurance team will, from 2023, validate regional audits to ensure consistency and quality of practice. In addition, all High and Very High Risk of Serious Harm assessments are countersigned by Senior Probation Officers to ensure they are sufficiently robust to protect the public.

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