Oral Answers to Questions

Emma Lewell-Buck Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields) (Lab)]

18. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the probation service.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Andrew Selous)]

We are monitoring the performance of the probation service closely as we implement our reforms.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

The probation service has warned of the disruptive effect of splitting up the probation system, and is already being proved correct. Dedicated officers in Shields tell me that long-standing and trusting relationships with clients have been cut short, which has made those individuals more difficult to engage, and, worse, more likely to reoffend. Why have the Government ignored those warnings?

[Andrew Selous]

Government Members are not happy with the very high reoffending rates that we have had for decades, and we are determined to do better. We shall be introducing supervision for prisoners who have been sentenced to less than one year, and we believe that our reforms will be highly successful. We are ambitious to end the cycle of reoffending that has blighted our communities for far too long, and we are doing something about it.