Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the pilot, launched in March 2021, with 15 magistrates’ courts, involving the Ministry of Justice, HMCTS and the probation service, of an alternative delivery model to increase the number of cases receiving pre-sentence reports.

The Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) Pilot tested an Alternative Delivery Model for PSRs in 15 magistrates’ courts’ and concluded in March 2023.

Monitoring data collected during the pilot revealed that pilot courts delivered a higher proportion of PSRs per in-court disposal than non-pilot courts, including for each of the priority cohorts (young adults aged 18-24; women; offenders at risk of short-term custody). We also conducted a process evaluation to explore how the Alternative Delivery Model was implemented, including identifying any benefits, challenges, or unintended outcomes. The process evaluation was published on 15 June 2023 (Process evaluation of the Pre-Sentence Report Pilot - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) and has found that:

• Participants generally support the targeting of priority cohorts with views that this has led to appropriate support for vulnerable groups but were keen to ensure there was flexibility in the model to allow for professional judgement.
• Probation staff largely support the virtual training which was offered as part of the pilot.
• However, the levels of implementation and buy-in for the Alternative Delivery Model varied across court sites, which appeared to relate to existing ways of working between stakeholders. The pilot also took place during a significant period of change, with the Covid-19 pandemic and re-unification of the Probation Service impacting resourcing and delays in court, and therefore our ability to embed and evaluate the Alternative Delivery Model in the most efficient way.

Findings from the pilot have shown some successful elements of the Alternative Delivery Model that we will now integrate into national delivery. This includes rolling out a refreshed training package for probation staff in court across England and Wales and rolling out the processes for the early identification of cases that would benefit from a PSR.