Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of reforms to the probation system.

We have a diverse range of providers delivering probation services, and an additional 40,000 offenders each year receiving supervision and support after release from custody.

While Community Rehabilitation Companies have reduced reoffending by two percentage points since 2015, we have been clear that probation needs to improve.

We set out in our consultation in July our intention to end the current CRC contracts in 2020 and put in place new structures which will enable private, public and third-sector providers to help further reduce reoffending.