Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what testing his Department does to ensure that systems to deal with breaches of community orders are working correctly.

Protection of the public is our key priority. This includes taking effective action to ensure that court orders are properly enforced. In the event of two unreasonable failures to comply with the requirements of a community order or suspended sentence order, Probation Instruction 06/2014 (Enforcement of Community Orders and Suspended Sentence Orders) requires both the National Probation Service and the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to return the offender to court. Where offenders are not complying with their sentences, probation providers must take swift and robust action, with offenders returned to court for breach proceedings where appropriate.

We have robust systems in place to manage the effectiveness of our enforcement practices. NPS managers are required to monitor the timely enforcement of cases and to take appropriate action when necessary. Our contract management team closely monitors CRCs to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce re-offending, protect the public and provide value for money to taxpayers. This includes enforcing orders where offenders fail to comply. Our internal assurance mechanisms are reviewed regularly to ensure there is adequate oversight of probation performance.