Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to sustain recruitment and training until Probation Service vacancies are filled across all geographic areas.

Recruitment and training of staff remain high priorities for the Probation Service, to ensure we have a sufficient workforce to safely supervise and manage people in the community. The Probation Service exceeded the 2024/25 trainee Probation Officer recruitment target of 1,000, successfully onboarding 1,057 trainees. The Lord Chancellor has committed to onboarding a further 1,300 trainees in 2025/26.

We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades to all regions to reduce the time to fill operational roles. Last year we launched a non-graduate route for staff to train as Probation Officers. This will increase applications and provide routes for a more diverse range of staff.

The pace of recruitment is balanced against the organisation’s ability to train and support new recruits whilst retaining sufficient services in the meantime. There is a core learning and development curriculum that must be completed by all new entrant Probation Services Officers and by Trainee Probation Officers alongside the academic requirement of their qualification. The Probation Service has continued to deliver the required learning to the high volumes of new recruits over recent years to ensure that learners can meet the qualification standards.