Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of pay for workers in the Probation Service.

We are committed to supporting probation officers and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our competitive pay position with comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike the difficult balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.

In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal (MYPD) covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025. This provided certainty in pay increases throughout the period and secured necessary reforms to the pay structure to help address some longstanding pay issues.

We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions working to agree the best possible outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our priorities and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.