Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether (a) police commissioners and (b) local authorities will have any role in the provision of probation services following the announcement of new contracts last year.

We outlined in our Strengthening Probation, Building Confidence consultation, that we wanted probation to work more closely with local partners, such as local authorities, and strengthen the role of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in the future system.

We have been working jointly with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and representatives from different PCC offices to refine our thinking specifically around the role of PCCs and their relationship with probation services in England. We want this to support greater local transparency of probation performance, greater alignment of priorities and more opportunities for co-commissioning of rehabilitative services.

HMPPS Wales are building on their positive partnership with the four PCCs in Wales around priority areas such as the Dyfodol Offender Interventions service and the Women’s Pathfinder initiative, to explore potential options around the co-commissioning of services as part of the current proposals for Wales.