Oral Answers to Questions

Kelvin Hopkins Excerpts

Tuesday 10th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

21. Whether he plans to review the future provision of probation services; and if he will make a statement.

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Ind)]

22. Whether he plans to review the future provision of probation services; and if he will make a statement.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr David Gauke)]

We are currently in commercial negotiations with community rehabilitation companies, with the aim of amending contracts and improving operational performance. Once we have concluded those negotiations, we will be in a position to provide further detail about the changes that we intend to make.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Gauke]

As I said in my earlier answer, we are engaging with the CRCs, which do need to improve their service. The model that we have has opened up the delivery of probation services to a range of new providers. It has extended support and supervision to an additional 40,000 offenders leaving prison. First-generation contracts can be difficult to get right—I acknowledge that—but we are taking all necessary steps to get the performance that we require.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

Given the constant underperformance, high cost and deeply abject failure of private probation companies, is it not time to re-establish a professional, coherent and comprehensively public probation service?