Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of probation worker caseloads during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics showing the total caseload of the 20 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) as well as the National Probation Service (NPS). The latest published figures cover the period from January to March 2020. Figures for the other quarters of 2020 will be published in due course. Figures for total probation caseload are published quarterly in the Offender Management Statistics Bulletin, England and Wales: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly

Statistics are also published for HMPPS workforce statistics which currently show NPS staffing levels as well as absence rates up to June 2020.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics

Figures on the average caseload of probation officers are not collected centrally. A probation worker’s tasks are not based solely on the number of cases they are managing, but the level of supervision each case requires.

From 23 March 2020, all CRCs have been operating an Exceptional Delivery Model (EDM) in accordance with Government advice and guidance on social distancing measures to help stem the rise of the COVID-19 infection rate. The pandemic has posed the department and the CRCs with an unprecedented challenge, and the EDMs have been regularly subjected to robust assurance and management to ensure that the CRCs prioritise their higher risk cases, at the higher end of the Medium-Low risk scale, and to continue to protect the public. CRCs and their staff continue to deliver vital front-line probation services to the service users in their care.