Select committee inquiry

Probation: landscape review

Closed

Public Accounts Committee · Opened 28 February 2014 · Closed 14 May 2014

Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

What the inquiry looked at

“Background The 35 English and Welsh Probation Trusts oversee around 210,000 offenders in the community. Trusts are also responsible for providing specialist services to Courts. Probation staff work in a variety of settings including within prisons. Trusts spent around £800 million in 2012-13. Probation Trusts have been generally assessed as performing well but reoffending rates remain high, particularly for offenders serving sentences of 12 months or less, who do not currently receive rehabilitation services. The Government has decided to implement wide-ranging reforms of rehabilitation owing to the fact that 600,000 crimes (MoJ figures) committed in 2012 were carried out by people who had broken the law before. The new arrangements, including the establishment of the National Probation Service, abolition of Probation Trusts and replacement with 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and the completion of a procurement process to move the CRCs into the private sector, are due to be in place by Autumn 2014. This inquiry looks at the main elements of the reform currently under way and identifies the key issues now facing those involved in probation. This is a landscape review, intended to inform the Committee about developments and advance its understanding of them. Related information: National Audit Office report: Probation: landscape review”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

What the government said

The government responded on 15 December 2014.

How the inquiry ran

Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 28 February 2014 to 15 December 2014.

  1. Oral evidence 12 Mar 2014
  2. Report 20 May 2014
  3. Government response 15 Dec 2014

What it recommended

The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 58th Report - Probation: landscape review ↗ on parliament.uk.

Evidence

Oral evidence sessions 1