Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many qualified probation officers were in post at the end of March in each year since 2020.

Staffing levels across HMPPS are publicly available in the “HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly” Official Statistics release, published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics.

Information on the number of staff by grade is available in Table 3 of the accompanying data tables, which can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6644d719ae748c43d3793c71/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-mar-2024_final.ods.

As of 31 March 2024, there were 5,139 full-time equivalent (FTE) Probation Officers in post. This is an increase of 718 FTE since 31 March 2023.