Asked by Lord Ramsbotham To ask Her Majesty’s Government when
the review of probation contracts, due for completion in April this
year, will be published. The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord
Keen of Elie) (Con) My Lords, we undertook an internal review
of the probation system and, as a result, made changes to community
rehabilitation company contracts in the summer. Details of...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the review of probation
contracts, due for completion in April this year, will be
published.
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The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Keen of Elie)
(Con)
My Lords, we undertook an internal review of the probation
system and, as a result, made changes to community
rehabilitation company contracts in the summer. Details of
these changes were contained in a Written Ministerial
Statement from Minister Gyimah on 19 July. We are continuing
to explore further improvements that could be made to the
delivery of probation services and will set out at a later
stage any changes that are made as a result of this work.
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(CB)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Clearly, all
is not well with probation. Following a whole series of
disappointingly and devastatingly bad reports by the chief
inspector, the Justice Select Committee launched an inquiry.
Following the bad contracting, during the summer the Ministry
of Justice had to bail out community rehabilitation companies
to the tune of £277 million, which it can ill afford. Many of
the warnings in the official impact assessment that the
rushed Transforming Rehabilitation agenda had a higher than
average risk of failure have been proved correct. Can the
Minister tell the House what the Government are going to do
about probation? Will they make time for a debate on the
subject before the end of the year?
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On that last point, I cannot say that the Government will be
able to make time for a debate on the subject before the end
of the year. On the suggestion of bad contracting, I would
point out that contracts were entered into with 21 CRCs, and
that those contracts encountered some financial difficulty
for one particular reason—namely, it was originally
anticipated that some 80% of those undertaking probation
would be referred to the 21 community rehabilitation
companies. In the event, only about 60% of those subject to
probation supervision were referred to the companies, and
that impacted directly upon their financial model as
determined under the original contracts. For that reason,
interim arrangements were made with the CRCs in the year
2016-17, and in the current year. However, the figure of £277
million referred to by the noble Lord is not a fixed figure:
it may have to be met, depending on the performance of the
CRCs.
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(Lab)
My Lords, morale in Northumbria’s probation service and CRC
is at a low level because of understaffing, with 50% of
officers leaving the service, excessive workloads, less
supervision and the need to concentrate on high-risk cases at
the expense of other cases. This is exemplified by case loads
of 40, including four to five high-risk cases, now being
replaced by much higher case loads, with a greater proportion
of high-risk cases and problems with escalating cases from
the CRCs to the National Probation Service. What do the
Government regard as a satisfactory case load for officers to
manage in terms of overall numbers and the balance between
high-risk and other cases?
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There is no fixed proportion as between officers and the
number of persons being supervised. That will depend upon the
particular CRC and the circumstances in which it is engaged
with the individual. The National Probation Service is in the
course of recruiting 1,400 additional staff. In addition, the
CRC contracts require providers to ensure that they have
sufficient adequately trained staff in place. Indeed, results
tend to bear that out. Nearly two-thirds of CRCs have reduced
the number of people reoffending in the past year, according
to statistics up to June 2017.
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(Con)
My Lords, is it not the case that the probation arrangements
relating to those prisoners serving indeterminate sentences
need to be brought up to date as a matter of urgency, since
many of those prisoners should have been released long ago?
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Clearly, there is an issue over the supervision of those
subject to IPP sentences. The circumstances in which they
come before the Parole Board are determined under existing
rules. Those are always under consideration.
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(LD)
My Lords, just last month, the Chief Inspector of Probation
laid out two conditions that she thought ought to be in the
review: first, the community rehabilitation companies should
have their finances put on a stable basis; secondly, these
companies should be incentivised for success. Will the
Minister heed the advice of his chief inspector, and will the
Government meet this requirement as urgently as possible so
that these companies can get on with the job of reducing
reoffending, getting people into work and making sure that
our prisons are not so overcrowded?
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We are of course conscious of the recommendations made by Her
Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation, which is why we
undertook the task in the summer of ensuring that the CRCs
were properly financed. As a consequence of that, during the
year 2016-17 an additional £37 million was made available,
and in contract year four—that is, the first three months of
this year—a further £22 million has been made available for
the CRCs so that they can meet their commitments. Over and
above that, I can confirm that the CRCs are incentivised
under the terms of their present contracts to achieve
results, and that will remain the position.
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(CB)
My Lords, the prison population has never been as great as it
is today. Is it not therefore a serious matter that the
Government should ensure that courts have available to them a
robust, rigorous and serious range of non-custodial
penalties? The probation service is central to that.
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I agree with the noble Lord’s observations. In that
connection, I would observe that, since February 2015,
statutory supervision has been extended to a further 40,000
offenders who are otherwise sentenced to a period of
imprisonment of less than 12 months—so that has increased the
numbers subject to supervision. But clearly, we have regard
to the extent to which community sentences and suspended
sentence orders operate effectively. It is noted in the
statistics published—
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A noble Lord
Too long.
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I am obliged to the noble Lord.
It is noted in the statistics published on 26 October 2017
that the extent of further offending is lower in the case of
community sentences.
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