Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report by HM Inspectorate of Probation, Race equality in probation: the experiences of black, Asian and minority ethnic probation service users and staff, published in March 2021, which states that pre-sentence reports prepared for people from a BAME background were of insufficient quality, what steps he is taking to improve the quality of those reports.

While the decision of whether to order a pre-sentence report (PSR) is up to the discretion of the judiciary, we recognise their importance and are working to improve their quality, targeting and timeliness.

In March 2021 HMPPS published a response to the HMIP report in the form of a detailed Action Plan responding to the recommendations within it. This document sets out how the Probation Service is improving the quality of PSRs for ethnic minority individuals.

An example of this work is demonstrated through the PSR pilot which is running in 15 magistrates’ courts across England and Wales. Amongst other activities the pilot has:

• Identified priority cohorts understood to have more complex needs (female offenders, young adult offenders, and offenders who are deemed to be at risk of custody). Ethnic minority service users have made up a proportion of the initial three priority cohorts but as of August 2022 we are going further to include these individuals explicitly as an additional priority cohort. The pilot will deliver more comprehensive, written PSRs rather than oral reports for these cohorts.
• Seen more PSRs delivered to these courts in comparison with national counterparts.
• Captured data relating to PSRs completed for ethnic minority individuals to better understand what changes are required from both an operational and policy perspective.
• Created a learning and development package focussed on building communications and advocacy skills, tackling racial disparities in the criminal justice system and learning how to become trauma informed and responsive to better support defendants.

More widely the HMPPS Race Action Programme is working to tackle the racial disparities that persist in the Criminal Justice System by increasing the diversity of our workforces, addressing the risk of bias in our policies, and improving training delivered to staff on race issues in probation, prison, and youth custody settings.