Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the annual cost of HM Prison and Probation Service's Restorative Practice Hub.

This Government supports the use of restorative justice. We know that restorative justice can improve victim satisfaction and reduce reoffending when delivered in the right circumstances. This not only benefits the victims and the offender but also their community.

The HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Restorative Practice Hub was established to help ensure that HMPPS facilitates restorative justice in complex and sensitive cases only where it is safe to do so. The team has four permanent full-time members of staff.

The work of the Restorative Practice Hub often requires input from a wide range of professionals, including prison and probation staff, victim liaison officers, psychologists, police officers, health practitioners and social workers. These individuals and their parent organisations contribute to cases as part of their wider operational responsibilities and are not dedicated solely to the work of the Restorative Practice Hub. Consequently, it is not possible to provide a reliable estimate of the total annual resource cost associated with the Restorative Practice Hub’s activities.

HMPPS does not hold the requested historical information on referrals, outcomes and decision-making timescales. The work of the Restorative Practice Hub has evolved over time and management information on referrals and outcomes has not previously been collected consistently in a way that would support robust year-on-year reporting.

However, HMPPS introduced a new case management system this year which records all referrals received by the Restorative Practice Hub. This will improve the ability to report on referral volumes, outcomes and decision-making timescales in future. As the system has only recently been implemented, there are not yet sufficient data available to provide robust information on outcomes or decision-making timescales.