Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Probation Service in the East of England.

The performance of the Probation Service in England and Wales is closely monitored by both internal and external scrutiny bodies, including His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP), who provide independent scrutiny of Probation Services. The Ministry of Justice also publishes the Probation Scorecard, which gives an overall rating of the performance of the probation service both nationally and within regions. The Probation Scorecard ratings for all regions, for the performance year ending March 2024, can be found on GOV.UK at: Community Performance Annual, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Following eight inspection reports on Probation Delivery Units in the East of England from May to August 2024, the HM Chief Inspector of Probation published an assessment of the region on 29 August 2024, which can be found at: An inspection of Probation Service – East of England region (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk).

The most recent HMPPS assurance of sentence management in East of England region was completed in January 2024 and identified similar performance issues in the East of England, such as insufficient assessment, planning and risk management, which the region is taking steps to address via their published Action Plan: East of England Probation Service Action Plan - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).