Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of probation officer salary levels on staff retention rates.

We are committed to supporting probation staff. We brought forward planned increases to pay, impacting the majority of staff, from 1 October 2024 to 1 April 2024, enabling access to improved pay earlier than planned. These improvements will benefit staff at a time of exceptional pressure for the Probation Service and recognises their resilience and dedication.

We shortly intend to engage with Trade Union colleagues about a new pay deal effective April 2025 following the current multi-year deal coming to an end in March 2025. Recruitment and Retention data is a critical piece of information used to inform pay discussions.

Probation Officer leaving rates to September 2024 can be found in Table 11 of our published statistics: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/673de4672ff787d4e01b0886/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-sep-2024.ods