Recommendation 6

Sufficient third sector and private sector capacity is required to meet offender needs, but decisions around funding are still unclear. HMPPS’s planned changes to the scope of the Probation Service will likely reduce probation supervision for many offenders assessed to be at lower risk of harm and reoffending. As highlighted to us by the Prison Reform Trust, low-risk individuals often require support for mental health, financial and drug treatment to prevent them becoming high-risk and reoffending. HMPPS’s plans will therefore require increased community support from Commissioned Rehabilitative Services (CRS) and other third sector organisations. The government has committed to providing an additional £700 million funding for the Probation Service over the next five years, but MoJ and HMPPS have not clarified how much of this funding will be available to cover additional demand for rehabilitative services. HMPPS’s plans also involve a significant increase in the use of electronic monitoring. Currently around 26,600 people are electronically monitored in the community but MoJ expects this to increase by up to 22,000 people. However, there have been serious performance issues with the electronic monitoring service, including delays by Serco in fitting tags. 6 recommendation MoJ and HMPPS should write to the Committee within six months setting out how Serco is performing against its key performance indicators, with regard to the electronic monitoring service and fitting tags. recommendation Once MoJ and HMPPS have clarified the role that they intend third sector and private sector organisations to play in the future Probation Service they should write to the Committee setting out: a. estimates of the proportion of individuals who will need access to this support and how that will be funded; b. what assurance they have that those no longer supervised by the Probation Service will be sufficiently supported to reduce reoffending, including providing details about the asse