Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of probation staff pay, in the context of the (a) workload and (b) public safety responsibilities of probation staff.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are committed to supporting probation staff and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. We recognise that fair and competitive pay is essential not only for staff wellbeing and retention, but also for maintaining the resilience of the Probation Service in its critical public safety role.
In recent years, we have made significant investments in pay through a multi-year pay deal (2022–2025), which provided certainty in pay increases and addressed longstanding structural issues. In June 2025, we secured exceptional agreement to pay the Competency Based Framework (CBF) Progression element of the award to eligible staff, recognising their contribution during a period of exceptional operational pressure.
We are currently working with senior leaders, ministers and recognised Trade Unions to agree the best possible outcome for the 2025/26 pay award, in line with Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance and our priorities for attraction and retention.
We also recognise the link between pay, workload and public safety. To address workload pressures, we have implemented initiatives such as “Probation Reset” and “Impact” and launched the “Our Future Probation Service” programme, which aims to reduce workload by 25% by April 2027. Recruitment remains a priority, with significant numbers of probation officer trainees onboarded in 2024/25 and a commitment to onboard a further 1,300 by March 2026.
These efforts are supported by a new wellbeing support model across HMPPS, including regional plans such as the Midlands wellbeing strategy, to ensure staff are supported in delivering their vital public safety responsibilities.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the provisions in the Employment Rights Bill on backlogs in the employment tribunals.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Employment Rights Bill is part of the Government’s commitment to Make Work Pay. The Bill includes measures that strengthens the rights of workers, which we expect will increase demand in the Employment Tribunal.
To address rising demand in the Employment Tribunal, we are working to invest in tribunal productivity measures through the recruitment of additional judges, the deployment of legal officers, the development of modern case management systems and the use of remote hearing technology. This has delivered over 1,500 additional sitting days. The Lord Chancellor allocated 33,900 sitting days for the Employment Tribunals in the financial year 2025/26, the maximum allocation they are able to sit.
We do recognise that there are significant demand pressures on the Employment Tribunals and are therefore working with the judiciary, HMCTS and the Department for Business and Trade on any further actions needed to alleviate pressures on the Employment Tribunals, improve efficiency and reduce waiting times to ensure the Employment Tribunal is able to absorb the impact of the Employment Rights Bill whilst ensuring timely access to justice for claimants and respondents.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the number of civil servants working from home for three days a week or more is increasing or decreasing.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Data on Civil Service Headquarters (HQ) occupancy is collected and published quarterly on GOV.UK for all HQ buildings of Whitehall Departments, Office for Scotland, Office for Wales and Northern Ireland Office.
Data for the latest period for which data is available is copied below. No other information on occupancy data or workforce attendance is gathered centrally.
Departments manage their own arrangements for monitoring workforce attendance. Heads of departments have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service.
Monthly Average HQ Building Occupancy (Quarter 1: April to June 2025)
| Departmental HQ | Building | April | May | June |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cabinet Office | 70 Whitehall | 62% | 92% | 83% |
Department for Business and Trade | Old Admiralty Building | 76% | 79% | 77% |
Department for Culture, Media and Sport | 100 Parliament Street | 69% | 72% | 62% |
Department for Education | Sanctuary Buildings | 65% | 66% | 70% |
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero | 3-8 Whitehall Place/55 Whitehall | 100% | 97% | 100% |
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 2 Marsham Street | 74% | 59% | 72% |
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology | 22 Whitehall | 88% | 85% | 92% |
Department for Transport | Great Minster House | 61% | 61% | 61% |
Department for Work and Pensions | Caxton House | 61% | 61% | 62% |
Department of Health and Social Care | 39 Victoria Street | 76% | 81% | 72% |
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office | King Charles Street | 65% | 63% | 65% |
HM Revenue and Customs | 100 Parliament Street | 70% | 68% | 73% |
HM Treasury | 1 Horse Guards | 68% | 69% | 68% |
Home Office | 2 Marsham Street | 72% | 74% | 73% |
Ministry of Defence | MOD Main Building | 82% | 85% | 87% |
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government | 2 Marsham Street | 71% | 72% | 74% |
Ministry of Justice | 102 Petty France | 81% | 75% | 76% |
Northern Ireland Office | 1 HG/Erskine House | 57% | 59% | 59% |
Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland | Dover House | 61% | 55% | 62% |
Office of the Secretary of State for Wales | Gwydyr House | 66% | 59% | 59% |
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will provide a breakdown of Government spending on advertising via social media platforms broken down by Department, over the last 12 months.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As with any media planning approach, channels are selected based on their ability to engage with relevant audiences in alignment with the government's strategic objectives.
The Cabinet Office is consistently tracking and reviewing spending on communications to ensure efficiency and that the appropriate strategy is implemented. We will not spend more than is needed to be effective and ensure best value for the taxpayer.
Please see the breakdown below of spend on social media broken down by department between 1st August 2024 and 31st July 2025.
Please note that this may not be the complete spend as the Cabinet Office does not centrally manage Departmental social media spend directly.
Department | Spend on social media platforms |
CABINET OFFICE | £917,392.78 |
DEPARTMENT FOR ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS | £108,685.84 |
DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT | £55,776.43 |
DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION | £5,790,404.71 |
DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT | £853,893.06 |
DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS | £1,174,253.06 |
DEPARTMENT FOR ENERGY SECURITY AND NET ZERO | £168,576.98 |
DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS AND TRADE | £2,932,130.17 |
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY | £145,503.62 |
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE | £1,689,076.17 |
UK EXPORT FINANCE | £336,808.09 |
FOREIGN COMMONWEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT OFFICE | £455,653.02 |
HM REVENUE AND CUSTOMS | £1,692,096.15 |
HOME OFFICE | £1,655,160.54 |
MINISTRY FOR HOUSING COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT | £528,370.47 |
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE | £1,605,710.08 |
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE | £5,938,304.99 |
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for using (i) ghost and (ii) cloned licence plates in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a wide range of offences, including offences relating to motor vehicle licence, trade licence, registration mark, trade plate and registration book offences (except forgery and deception offences) (MOT) in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK.
However, it is not possible to identify specifically offences relating to ghost or clone licensing. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what meetings her Department has had with (a) prison officers, (b) prison officers' unions and (c) other representative bodies of prison staff to discuss assaults in open prisons in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We have maintained regular and structured engagement with staff and their recognised trade union representatives on this matter. All prison governors in the open estate routinely hold local staff engagement forums, providing frontline officers with the opportunity to raise concerns or share feedback. His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) ensures that the safety statistics, which are published, reviewed, and discussed quarterly with recognised trade unions, including the POA. These meetings form part of HMPPS’s formal engagement and allow unions to raise concerns on safety matters.
There are also more frequent open-estate trade union stocktakes to provide additional engagement opportunities on this issue, and other matters of concern to members.
HMPPS headquarters officials meet every two weeks with governors of open prisons, and convene quarterly forums specifically focused on open prison operations, where safety is a standing agenda item. These engagements reflect our continuing commitment to transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement in custodial safety.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of real-terms pay on the recruitment and retention of probation staff since 2010.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to supporting probation staff and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our position in terms of comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike a balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.
In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.
We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions to agree a good outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our prioritises and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.
We are committed to providing manageable workloads for staff. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting resources towards our most vital work. We are investing in probation - onboarding 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year. We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades.
There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve recruitment and retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.
Leaving rates to June 2025 can be found in table 10a, table 10b and table 11 of our published statistics. The overall Probation Service leaving rate of 9.0% (taken from T10a) in the year to the end of June 2025 was 1.7 percentage points lower than it was in March 2024. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689f34791fedc616bb133a86/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-jun-2025_final.ods.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of real-terms pay reductions on the recruitment and retention of probation staff since 2010.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to supporting probation staff and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our position in terms of comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike a balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.
In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.
We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions to agree a good outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our prioritises and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.
We are committed to providing manageable workloads for staff. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting resources towards our most vital work. We are investing in probation - onboarding 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year. We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades.
There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve recruitment and retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.
Leaving rates to June 2025 can be found in table 10a, table 10b and table 11 of our published statistics. The overall Probation Service leaving rate of 9.0% (taken from T10a) in the year to the end of June 2025 was 1.7 percentage points lower than it was in March 2024. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689f34791fedc616bb133a86/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-jun-2025_final.ods.
Asked by: Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to review the pay structure for probation officers.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to supporting probation staff and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our position in terms of comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike a balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.
In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025.
We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions to agree a good outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our prioritises and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.
We are committed to providing manageable workloads for staff. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting resources towards our most vital work. We are investing in probation - onboarding 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year. We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades.
There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve recruitment and retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.
Leaving rates to June 2025 can be found in table 10a, table 10b and table 11 of our published statistics. The overall Probation Service leaving rate of 9.0% (taken from T10a) in the year to the end of June 2025 was 1.7 percentage points lower than it was in March 2024. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689f34791fedc616bb133a86/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-jun-2025_final.ods.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of pay for workers in the Probation Service.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to supporting probation officers and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our competitive pay position with comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike the difficult balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.
In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal (MYPD) covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025. This provided certainty in pay increases throughout the period and secured necessary reforms to the pay structure to help address some longstanding pay issues.
We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions working to agree the best possible outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our priorities and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.