Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what measured effect Justice Transcribe has had on (a) probation officer contact time with offenders, (b) caseloads and (c) recorded outcomes; what accuracy testing has been undertaken; and what the tool has cost.

Justice Transcribe is an AI tool that summarises conversations between probation officers and people on probation, reducing administrative burden and enabling practitioners to focus more on supervision.

Between 7 October 2025 and 14 September 2026, the tool summarised over 1.6 million meetings. The evidence from the pilot found that for 80% of officers surveyed the tool improved engagement with the people they supervise but the additional contact time has not been directly measured.

While we have not measured direct impact on caseloads, HMPPS forecasts that Justice Transcribe will release practitioner capacity and free up time equivalent to around 470 full-time staff and support per annum, enabling practitioners to devote more time to other work.

Practitioners report improved quality and completeness of case records. A post-implementation evaluation is assessing the impact of the national rollout across various metrics.

Before national rollout, a robust independent pilot evaluation included a review of case records to assess the quality and accuracy of outputs, comparative evaluation of AI models accuracy testing and independent security testing. This evaluation found records useful and relevant to case management, but Practitioners must review and edit outputs before saving official records. A further National evaluation is underway with further quality assurance being developed.

Justice Transcribe is expected to cost is £7.9 million between 2025-26 and 2028-29 for use in probation sentence management meetings, including staff, service-running costs and contingency.