Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential effectiveness of offenders being placed on probation in a city that is different from their supervising probation service.

In order to obtain data on the relocation of people on probation, individual case files would need to be reviewed. The information could therefore not be collated without incurring disproportionate cost.

His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service provides accommodation directly to some offenders through its Community Accommodation Service: for example, approved premises for high-risk offenders and temporary accommodation for homeless prison leavers. We endeavour to accommodate offenders in an area that would be best for their rehabilitation, usually this is in their local area. However, a range of factors needs to be considered, including but not limited to the protection of victims. It may sometimes be more beneficial for an individual to be placed outside of an area where they have existing links due to their personal circumstances. This can include on occasion both individuals originally from elsewhere being housed in Birmingham, and individuals originally from Birmingham being housed elsewhere.

Offenders supervised by probation will normally be allocated to the Probation Delivery Unit local to them. Changes of location during a sentence can be disruptive and potentially impact on risk management and sentence planning and delivery. Changes can also, however, provide an opportunity for refreshing engagement, and the strengths and benefits of any move must also be identified and encouraged. In order to mitigate any risks, case transfers from one probation area to another are planned and managed.