Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the probation service.

The effectiveness of the Probation Service is regularly assessed through internal quality audits and performance metrics. These contribute to a Probation Scorecard which is published annually. The publication of the 2022/23 Probation Scorecard is planned for July 2023.

HMPPS internally tracks the effectiveness of performance in the following ways:

HMPPS’ independent internal assurance function provides assurance of the quality of probation practice across all probation regions through annual Sentence Management Audits. These highlight strengths in quality of practice, and areas for improvement.

All regions have internal Quality Improvement Plans to drive improvements in service delivery. These plans are quality assured centrally by HMPPS’ independent internal assurance function.

As part of regional quality work, regions also complete their own assurance of the quality of practice, using a specialised audit tool, which provides a local indication of the effectiveness of Probation practice.

Effectiveness is also independently assessed by HMI Probation.