Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation’s report, Caseloads, workloads and staffing levels in probation Services, published in March 2021, how many probation staff have experienced a Workload Measurement Tool capacity of over 120 percent for more than four consecutive weeks in a year for each of the last five years.

The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics showing the total caseload of the 20 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) as well as the National Probation Service (NPS). The latest published figures cover the period from June to September 2020. Figures for the following quarter will be published in due course. Figures for total probation caseload are published quarterly in the Offender Management Statistics Bulletin, England and Wales: https://data.justice.gov.uk/probation/offender-management/caseload-total

Senior Probation Officers monitor the capacity of individuals in their teams regularly. The Workload Measurement Tool is a tool designed to assist a Senior Probation Officer in allocating cases to Probation Practitioners by balancing the workload out amongst their teams. Anyone over 110% for a period of 4 consecutive weeks is deemed to have an excessive workload and we have policies and guidance in place to support managers and staff who meet this threshold.

Figures detailing how many probation staff have experienced a Workload Measurement Tool capacity of over 120 percent for more than 4 consecutive weeks in a year for each of the last five years could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.