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1684081

registered interest
date	22/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Probation: Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the number of probation officers per grade that left the probation service in (a) 2023 and (b) 2022.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	10821
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2024 answer text <p>The number of leavers from HMPPS by grade is published every quarter in Table 8c of the “HM Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics” publication. The main publication can be accessed via this link: <a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics</a>.</p><p>The latest accompanying tables are here: (<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6554ab3750475b000dc5b614/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-sep-2023.ods" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6554ab3750475b000dc5b614/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-sep-2023.ods</a>).</p><p>Recruitment and retention remain a priority across the Probation Service. We have injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, recruit thousands more staff and reduce caseloads to keep the public safer.</p><p>We have accelerated recruitment of trainee Probation Officers (PQiPs) to increase staffing levels, particularly in Probation Delivery Units (PDUs) with the most significant staffing challenges. As a result, over 4,000 PQiPs joined the service between 2020/21 and 2022/23 which will increase Probation Officer staffing numbers.  We continue to run centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions alongside regional recruitment to help bolster the number of applications and improve time to hire for key operational roles.</p><p>The Probation Service is in its second year of a multi-year pay deal for staff. Salary values of all pay bands will increase each year, targeted at key operational grades to improve a challenging recruitment and retention position.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 25/01/2024 12:40:23 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1684083

registered interest
date	22/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Probation: Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the number of vacancies per region in the probation service at the end of 2023.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	10822
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2024 answer text <p><strong>Table One: Vacancies across Probation Service Regions, September 2023, all Probation Service grades</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Probation Service Region</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Vacancies (FTE)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS East Midlands</p></td><td><p>28</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS East of England</p></td><td><p>274</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Greater Manchester</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Kent, Surrey &amp; Sussex</p></td><td><p>77</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS London</p></td><td><p>457</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS North East</p></td><td><p>32</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS North West</p></td><td><p>77</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS South Central</p></td><td><p>176</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS South West</p></td><td><p>74</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Wales</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS West Midlands</p></td><td><p>32</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Yorkshire &amp; the Humber</p></td><td><p>59</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Approved Premises</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Data shows average resource across the month, adjusted for joiners and leavers within the month. Data shown as of September 2023, aligning with the most recent HMPPS Workforce Quarterly publication. More recent data cannot be provided due to potentially pre-empting future statistical publications.</p><p>Recruitment and retention remain a priority across the Probation Service. We have injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, recruit thousands more staff and reduce caseloads to keep the public safer.</p><p>We continue to focus efforts on enhanced, centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions alongside regional recruitment to help bolster the number of applications and improve time to hire for key operational roles. We have also accelerated recruitment of trainee Probation Officers (PQiPs) to increase staffing levels, particularly in Probation Delivery Units with the most significant staffing challenges. As a result, over 4,000 PQiPs joined the service between 2020/21 and 2022/23 which will increase Probation Officer staffing numbers.</p><p>The Probation Service is in its second year of a multi-year pay deal for staff. Salary values of all pay bands will increase each year, targeted at key operational grades to improve a challenging recruitment and retention position. The Probation Service has also introduced a Prioritisation Framework to provide clarity on prioritisation of tasks and what can be reduced/paused when capacity issues begin to impact on operational delivery.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Notes</em></strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ol><li>Vacancies have been calculated as Required Staffing (Full Time Equivalent - FTE) minus Staff in Post (FTE).</li><li>Where the number of Staff in Post (FTE) in a region exceeds Required Staffing (FTE), the number of vacancies has been shown as 0 FTE. Summing the figures in the table will not give the overall number of vacancies across the Probation Service due the surpluses in some regions that haven’t been shown in the table.</li><li>Vacancies have been netted off between grades and business units. As a result, the overall vacancy figures presented mask the presence of vacancies at both grade and business unit level.</li><li>Data have been taken from the Workforce Planning Tool and are subject to inaccuracy as a result of the manual nature with which returns are completed. This approach differs from the published statistics, which uses data from the Single Operating Platform (our departmental HR system).</li><li>Staff in Post (FTE) has not been adjusted for long-term absences (e.g. Trainee Probation Officer training time). In addition, we have not factored in loans / temporary cover / agency and sessional.The actual resourced position will therefore differ as a result of these.</li><li>Trainee Probation Officers are included in the data. Trainees spend a proportion of their time training and the remainder of their time carrying out work at a Band 3 PSO level. Both training time and time spent delivering caseload are included in the Staff in Post (FTE) calculations, which means that number of vacancies is lower than the actual gap between Required Staffing and frontline delivery.</li></ol></p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 25/01/2024 16:07:43 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1684084

registered interest
date	22/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Probation Service: Sick Leave
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of sick days taken by probation officers in 2023.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	10823
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2024 answer text <p>The number of working days lost by HMPPS staff by grade is published every quarter in Table 19 of the “HM Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics” publication. The main publication can be accessed via this link: <a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-offender-management-service-workforce-statistics.</a> The latest accompanying tables are here: (<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6554ab3750475b000dc5b614/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-sep-2023.ods" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6554ab3750475b000dc5b614/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-sep-2023.ods</a>).</p><p>HMPPS is focused on reducing its sickness absence rates through the support currently offered to staff and managers, including a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) that provides the workforce with access to confidential support &amp; counselling services. This is in addition to the organisation’s Occupational Health Service that supports staff &amp; management with medical advice, and HMPPS’ multitude of staff networks that are part of HMPPS’ commitment to ensuring our staff feel supported in their roles.</p><p>HMPPS are actively reviewing their approach to staff wellbeing to strengthen the wellbeing offer. Managers support employees who are unwell, and are provided HR casework support to appropriately manage employee absence in line with established policies &amp; procedures.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 25/01/2024 17:40:30 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1684085

registered interest
date	22/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Probation: Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of probation officers with more than four years service that resigned from the probation service in 2023.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	10824
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/01/2024 answer text <p>The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, including leavers, and the latest publication covers data up to 30 September 2023. Therefore, information after 30 September is unpublished and cannot be released.</p><p>In the 12 months to 30 September 2023, there were 135 probation officers (band 4) who resigned from the probation service with more than four years of service. This includes staff who had a length of service of at least 4 years and 1 day.</p><p>Recruitment and retention remain a priority across the Probation Service. We have injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, recruit thousands more staff and reduce caseloads to keep the public safer. The Probation Service leaving rate decreased in the 12 months to 30 September 2023 compared to the 12 months prior.</p><p>We have accelerated recruitment of trainee Probation Officers (PQiPs) to increase staffing levels, particularly in Probation Delivery Units (PDUs) with the most significant staffing challenges. As a result, over 4,000 PQiPs joined the service between 2020/21 and 2022/23 which will increase Probation Officer staffing numbers.  We continue to run centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions alongside regional recruitment to help bolster the number of applications and improve time to hire for key operational roles.</p><p>The Probation Service is in its second year of a multi-year pay deal for staff. Salary values of all pay bands will increase each year, targeted at key operational grades to improve a challenging recruitment and retention position.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 25/01/2024 12:41:42 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1682945

registered interest
date	17/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Drugs
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2024 to Question 7583 on Prisons: Drugs, how many random mandatory drug tests carried out between 2018 and 2023 were positive.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	10147
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2024 answer text <p>Between April 2018 and March 2023, there were 25,323 positive rMDT tests for both traditional drugs and psychoactive substances. Data for April to December 2023 will be published as part of the 2023-24 Annual Digest.</p><p>No new Official Statistics on rMDT positivity have been published since the year to March 2020, because since the start of the COVID pandemic testing levels and the number of prisons with sufficient testing have been too low to provide robust data.</p><p>The range of drugs tested in the rMDT panel is subject to change in response to new emerging drug types and new patterns of drug use. This is necessary to ensure our testing approach is targeting the right substances. These limitations mean no robust rate of positive tests can be calculated from the above data and this number of positive tests should not be compared to the number of tests.</p><p><em>Care is taken when processing and analysing returns, but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level.</em></p><p><em>This does not include tests that were spoilt or lost in transit on the way to the laboratory.</em></p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 23/01/2024 08:43:15 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1682397

registered interest
date	16/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to (a) help tackle and (b) vet HM Prison staff to ensure compliance with rules on the smuggling of contraband into prisons; and whether he has had recent discussions with his counterparts in the devolved Administrations on a UK-wide approach to this issue.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	9827
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2024 answer text <p>The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. All HMPPS prison staff are subject to pre-employment vetting checks, including social and digital media vetting checks, to assess whether candidates meet the high standards expected of them to work in HMPPS and assures a standard of resilience upon entry. This vetting is renewed every 10 years.</p><p> </p><p>HMPPS is undertaking a Vetting Reform Programme and applying the recommendations from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Police, Fire &amp; Rescue Services report of 2022: “<em>An Inspection of Vetting, Misconduct and Misogyny in the Police Service</em>” to prisons and probation.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has not held discussions with devolved administrations about vetting but will consider the merits of doing so to ensure processes remain modern and robust across the UK.</p><p> </p><p>We committed to having a zero-tolerance approach to crime in prisons. Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including the smuggling of contraband, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered airport-style enhanced gate security to 42 high-risk sites, implementing routine searching of staff. We have since gone further and installed X-ray baggage scanners at 49 sites and invested into new drug trace detection equipment across the estate.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 23/01/2024 16:56:04 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1682570

registered interest
date	16/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prison Officers: Training
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what training prison officers receive on violence against women and girls.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	9855
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2024 answer text <p>All newly recruited prison officers receive a minimum of ten weeks training which provides them with the skills required to be a competent prison officer. MOJ Learning &amp; Development for HMPPS also offer additional specialist training for the HMPPS Women’s Estate which has a further week’s training.</p><p>Prison officers undertaking the specialist training within the Women’s Estate are trained on a variety of modules which include:</p><p>- Trauma</p><p>- Child protection and safeguarding</p><p>- Safety support skills</p><p>- Tackling violence against women and girls</p><p>All prison officers are required to complete an eLearning package in child safeguarding awareness. There is also a further domestic abuse eLearning package available for all staff.</p><p>Prison officers working in the Prison Offender Manager role are required to complete a child safeguarding, domestic abuse and adult safeguarding course.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 23/01/2024 08:41:52 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1681939

registered interest
date	15/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners' Release: Christmas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders were released on temporary licence for Christmas Day in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023, broken down by each offence committed.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	9465
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/01/2024 answer text <p>Data on the number of individuals recorded as temporarily released from prison on 25 December 2022, broken down by main offence category, has been published in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI 230910004) and may be accessed here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi-releases-for-october-2023" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi-releases-for-october-2023</a>.</p><p>Requested data for Christmas 2023 forms a subset of data planned for release in the regular Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication, and therefore the Department is not able to provide the requested information at this time.</p><p>Offenders released on temporary licence are subject to strict conditions and risk assessment. Any breaches can result in more time behind bars.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 18/01/2024 16:24:18 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1681940

registered interest
date	15/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners' Release: Christmas
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Discretionary Friday/pre-Bank Holiday Release Scheme Policy Framework, last updated on 8 December 2023, how many offenders with scheduled release dates between 22 and 26 December 2023 were released on (a) 20 and (b) 21 December 2023 under the terms of that framework, by each offence committed by those offenders.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	9466
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/01/2024 answer text <p>This policy created a presumption that all offenders due for release on a Friday or the day before a bank/public holiday will be eligible for release up to two working days earlier unless exceptional circumstances apply.</p><p>It addresses the practical challenges posed by Friday releases in order for offenders to turn their back on crime. Releasing offenders earlier in the week will help them to access the key services that they need, such as drugs rehabilitation and mental health support. This better enables stable and law-abiding resettlement, reducing their risk of reoffending and ensuring public protection is maintained.</p><p>For the adult estate, data covering prisoner releases in December under this policy forms a subset of data planned for release in the regular Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication, and therefore the Department is not able to provide the requested information at this time.</p><p>The Youth Custody Service holds this data for the Children and Young People Secure Estate which shows fewer than 5 children or young people were due for release between 22nd and 26th December. Data suppression rules (in this case numbers of individuals fewer than 5) in place to protect the anonymity of individuals prevent disclosure of the exact figure and offence type. However, all those children or young people due for release within the period were released in accordance with policy on December 20.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 18/01/2024 16:25:07 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1682059

registered interest
date	15/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Burglary: Reoffenders
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the re-offending rate for individuals serving a custodial sentence for burglary is.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	9527
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/01/2024 answer text <p>The proven reoffending rate for the October to December 2021 offender cohort (the latest available) who had an index offence of burglary and served a custodial sentence for this offence was 48.3%.</p><p>This Government is committed to tackling reoffending and keeping our communities safe. We are investing to address reoffending through a number of initiatives including:</p><ul><li>rolled out our temporary accommodation service to all probation regions to support thousands of prison leavers who would otherwise have been released homeless;</li><li>delivering our Prison Education Service which aims to raise prisoners’ levels of literacy, numeracy and skills to help them secure jobs on release;</li><li>recruiting 92 Prison Employment Leads across all our resettlement prisons to match prisoners to jobs; and</li><li>introducing Employment Advisory Boards across 92 prisons, chaired by local business leaders, which link prisons with local industry in order to align skills work in prison with labour market need.</li></ul><p>As a result, 5796 prison leavers have been supported through our temporary accommodation service between 1 July 2021 and 31 March 2023, while the proportion of prison leavers in employment six months after release has more than doubled in the two years to March 2023 from 14% to over 30%.</p><p>Between 2010/11 and 2020/21, the overall proven reoffending rate decreased from 31.6% to 24.4%.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 18/01/2024 16:26:46 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury