Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly statistics, Probation Officer Recruitment Annex, September 2021, published on 18 November 2021, what steps he is taking to reduce probation officer vacancy rates in (a) Kent, Surrey and Sussex, (b) South West, (c) London, (d) East Midlands and (e) other probation service regions.

In April 2021 we published the first national Recruitment and Retention Strategy for the Probation Service which identified several key areas of focus.

The Probation Service is committed to increasing recruitment to fill Probation Officer vacancies, particularly in areas with significant local employment market challenges.

In 2020/21, we recruited a record 1,007 trainee probation officers. We are further increasing our recruitment to unprecedented levels, with a target 1500 trainee Probation Officers being recruited this financial year (2021/2022).

As outlined in the Recruitment and Retention Strategy, our focus is addressing recruitment and retention challenges within the Probation Service, particularly for those Probation Delivery Units (PDUs) with the highest average Probation Officer vacancy rates over a 12-month period.

We have identified 6 common drivers of attrition across those regions where it is more challenging to recruit and retain probation officers. These drivers include:

o Pay and benefits

o Newly Qualified Officers’ (NQO) attrition

o High caseloads

o Lack of career progression

o Wellbeing

o Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination

Work is currently underway to address all drivers of attrition, including options to retain NQOs in their qualifying regions for a period post qualification and a targeted recruitment campaign to reduce probation officer vacancy rates in Kent, Surrey & Sussex (KSS), in an effort to fill 35 probation officer vacancies.