Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Accepted
Persistent staff shortages create unsustainable workloads for probation officers across all regions.
Conclusion
Persistent staff shortages mean that probation staff have been working at a level that is unsustainable for years.26 At March 2025, there were 5,636 full-time equivalent probation officers in post, 79% of HMPPS’s target staffing level - a shortfall of 1,479 probation officers. HMPPS’s data shows that probation officers, at a national level, have been working on average at 118% capacity from January 2022 to April 2024. In some regions, for example, London and East of England, probation officers had to deal with even higher workloads - working on average at 126% capacity.27 In 2024, HMPPS found that it had significantly underestimated the number of staff it needed for its Probation Service and had been operating with around only half of the staff needed to run sentence management as intended. This means that HMPPS’s data on staff capacity will have been a significant underestimate of the actual pressure practitioners have been under.28
Government Response Summary
HMPPS is committed to addressing the high workloads faced by probation staff and has launched the "Our Future Probation Service Programme (OFPS)" with the primary objective to reduce workloads by 25% by April 2027, with Justice Transcribe on track for national roll out by April 2026.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 HMPPS is committed to addressing the high workloads faced by probation staff. The “Our Future Probation Service Programme (OFPS)” was launched with the primary objective to reduce workloads by 25% by April 2027. OFPS is already delivering against that aim, with Justice Transcribe on track for national roll out by April 2026. 3.3 During March and April 2026, HMPPS plans to share more detail with staff and stakeholders, via internal communications channels, governance and stakeholder engagement forums, on the wider package of measures to improve productivity and reduce workloads.