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The Probation Service (formerly the National Probation Service) for England and Wales is a statutory criminal justice service, mainly responsible for the supervision of offenders in the community and the provision of reports to the criminal courts to assist them in their sentencing duties. It was established in its current form by the
Criminal Justice and Court Services Act The Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament that advances a number of agendas related to criminal justice. It instituted the National Probation Service as well as the Children and Family Court Advisory a ...
in April 2001, but has existed since 1907 as a set of area-based services interacting at arm's length with central government. The current Probation Service was created on 26 June 2021 following the Ministry of Justice withdrawing the contracts of 21 privately-run Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). The service is part of
His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service is an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) responsible for the correctional services in England and Wales. It was created in 2004 as the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) by combin ...
(HMPPS), which transferred to the
Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...
from the Home Office on 9 May 2007. It comprises 42 probation areas which are coterminous with police force area boundaries, served by 35 probation trusts. Trusts are funded by HMPPS and employ all staff except the chief officer; they are accountable to their boards (comprising up to fifteen members appointed by the Secretary of State) for day-to-day operations and financial management, and to HMPPS via a
Regional Offender Manager There has been a regional offender manager (ROM) for each of the nine English regions and Wales since 2004/05, when the National Offender Management Service within the Home Office was created to oversee correctional services in England and Wales. ...
, with whom they have service level agreements, for performance against the targets for the offender management and interventions services for which they have been funded. The work of probation trusts is scrutinised by HMPPS, which reports independently to UK government ministers; and by
HM Inspectorate of Probation His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) is a statutory body and independent UK inspectorate funded by the Ministry of Justice, formed in 1936. Role and functions HMIP reports to the Secretary of State for Justice on the effectiveness of the ...
. There are concerns that staff shortages, failure in communication and privatisation may be weakening the probation service and putting the public at risk. Northern Ireland has its own probation service, whilst in Scotland
criminal justice social work services Social care in Scotland encompasses social work; care home services in the community for adults, children and young people; and services for young children, including nurseries and after-school care clubs. National Care Service The National C ...
are managed within the social work departments of local authorities.


History

The
Church of England Temperance Society The temperance movement in the United Kingdom was a social movement that campaigned against the recreational use and sale of alcohol, and promoted total abstinence (teetotalism). In the 19th century, high levels of alcohol consumption and drunke ...
and other voluntary societies appointed missionaries to the London police courts during the late nineteenth century. From this developed the system of releasing offenders on the condition that they kept in touch with the missionary and accepted guidance. In 1907 this supervision was given a statutory basis which allowed courts to appoint and employ probation officers. The service, at the start of 2004, had some 18,000 staff. Statistics for the year 2002 state that it supervised just less than 193,000 offenders and provided 253,000 pre-sentence reports to courts in England and Wales, advising them on the background of and proposing appropriate sentences for convicted offenders. In addition, it has responsibility for ensuring that victims of violent and sexual crime resulting in prison sentences of over 12 months are consulted before offenders are released from custody. The advent of NOMS in 2004 changed the pattern of correctional services delivery in England and Wales. The Offender Management Bill, introduced in Parliament late in 2006, was intended to enable probation areas to become trusts as part of wider government policy to open up the provision of correctional services to greater competition from the voluntary, community, and private sectors. This was one of the recommendations of the Carter Report (2003): others were to introduce a system of ''end-to-end offender management'', with one named offender manager having responsibility for an offender throughout his or her sentence (be it in custody, the community, or both), and to ''rebalance sentencing'' in order to redress the drift towards less and less serious offences resulting in imprisonment or community sentences. Carter saw the need to improve public and sentencer confidence not only in community sentences but also in the fine as credible sanctions for appropriate offenders and offences. The Bill completed its passage through Parliament in July 2007, and the first six probation trusts came into being on 1 April 2008 (Merseyside, South Wales,
Humberside Humberside () was a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in Northern England from 1 April 1974 until 1 April 1996. It was composed of land from either side of the Humber Estuary, created from portions of the East Riding of Yorkshire, West ...
, Dyfed/Powys, West Mercia and Leicestershire & Rutland).
Lancashire Probation Trust Lancashire Probation Trust is a criminal justice agency responsible for punishing and rehabilitating offenders in Lancashire, England. It is one of 35 probation trusts in England and Wales that make up the National Probation Service. The Minist ...
achieved Trust status on 1 April 2009.


Criticism

An article in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' suggests privatisation of the probation service was done in haste, underfunded and is failing. Probation is being used less because judges and magistrates have lost confidence in the privatised probation system. The probation service in London is understaffed and many probation officers are inexperienced. Probationers are seen too infrequently and some are overlooked. A proper risk assessment is not done in the majority of cases. Privatisation of probation service continues to produce "troubling" results. The Chief Inspector of Probation disclosed that probation supervision for one in four low-risk offenders in Gwent is no more than a phone call every six weeks.
HM Inspectorate of Probation His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) is a statutory body and independent UK inspectorate funded by the Ministry of Justice, formed in 1936. Role and functions HMIP reports to the Secretary of State for Justice on the effectiveness of the ...
maintains half of cases have no proper assessment of risk of harm. Junior officers working for Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) sometimes manage over 200 cases each though at most 60 can be managed safely. Not enough is done to supervise former prisoners after release from jail and discourage reoffending.
Glenys Stacey Dame Glenys Jean Stacey DBE (''née'' McBride; born 1954) is a solicitor and civil servant serving as chair of the Office for Environmental Protection from February 2021. She was Chief Executive and Chief Regulator of Ofqual, acting in the post ...
, Chief Inspector of Probation said, "Although there are exceptions, the community rehabilitation companies... are not generally producing good quality work, not at all." The
Justice Select Committee The Justice Select Committee of the United Kingdom is a select committee of the House of Commons which scrutinizes the policy, administration, and spending of the Ministry of Justice. In addition, the committee examines the work of the Law Offi ...
said the 'Transforming Rehabilitation' programme had brought the probation system into a "mess", staff morale was at an "all-time low" and newly released prisoners got "wholly inadequate" support. The committee said that splitting the service between a national body and 21 rehabilitation companies lead to a two-tier system, reducing voluntary sector involvement. MPs said the companies' efforts to reduce re-offending is "disappointing" and some staff are not trained to deal with cases they are assigned. Perpetrators of domestic abuse are inadequately supervised by private companies, putting tens of thousands of victims and their families at risk. The staff of privatised offender supervision companies do not have the skill, experience or time to supervise perpetrators.
HM Inspectorate of Probation His Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) is a statutory body and independent UK inspectorate funded by the Ministry of Justice, formed in 1936. Role and functions HMIP reports to the Secretary of State for Justice on the effectiveness of the ...
found in 71% of cases, there was insufficient victim protection.
Glenys Stacey Dame Glenys Jean Stacey DBE (''née'' McBride; born 1954) is a solicitor and civil servant serving as chair of the Office for Environmental Protection from February 2021. She was Chief Executive and Chief Regulator of Ofqual, acting in the post ...
stated private Community Rehabilitation Companies were "nowhere near effective enough."
Katie Ghose Katie Sushila Ratna Ghose (born July 1970) is a British charity chief executive and campaigner. In September 2019 she was appointed chief executive of KIDS, a national charity for disabled children and young people. She was previously Chief Ex ...
of
Women's Aid Women's Aid Federation of England, commonly called Women's Aid within England, is one of a group of charities across the United Kingdom. There are four main Women's Aid Federations, one for each of the countries of the United Kingdom. Its aim is t ...
said, "This report shows that community rehabilitation companies are failing victims, with a significant lack of understanding about domestic abuse, especially coercive control. Probation officers are routinely underestimating the ongoing danger posed to the victim and not reassessing the level of risk involved when circumstances change. The findings of this report show that CRCs are currently not fit for purpose when it comes to domestic abuse cases and we call on the government to urgently change this to protect survivors". Too few perpetrators of domestic abuse are referred to courses to help them manage relationships better and those who do too frequently do not complete the course. Serious offences committed by people supervised by the probation service have increased markedly.
Richard Burgon Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015. Burgon served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow C ...
said, "All too often probation appears stretched to breaking point and struggling to fulfil its fundamental role of keeping the public safe. The Conservatives' irresponsible decision to break up and privatise much of probation has put huge pressures on the system. The government urgently needs to explain how it plans to tackle this extremely worrying rise in serious offences committed by offenders". Suicides by people the Probation Service manages have risen by 19% from 283 in 2017–18 to 337 in 2018–19, and amounted to 31% of all deaths of offenders in the community. Deborah Coles of
INQUEST An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...
said, "These figures are deeply disturbing and require urgent scrutiny due to the current lack of independent investigation. What is known is that people are being released into failing support systems, poverty and an absence of services for mental health and addictions. This is state abandonment. This is the violence of
austerity Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spend ...
."Self-inflicted deaths among offenders on probation rise by a fifth
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''


See also

*
Violent and Sex Offender Register In the United Kingdom, the Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) is a database of records of those required to register with the police under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (the 2003 Act), those jailed for more than 12 months for violent offences ...
* Offender Assessment System (OASys) * Probation services are provided by
local authorities in Scotland Local government in Scotland comprises thirty-two local authorities, commonly referred to as councils. Each council provides public services, including education, social care, waste management, libraries and planning. Councils receive the majori ...
*
Drug Interventions Programme The Drug Interventions Programme is a key part of the United Kingdom's strategy for tackling drug abuse. It aims to engage drug-misusing offenders involved in the Criminal Justice system in formal addiction treatment and other support, thereby redu ...
*
Lancashire Probation Trust Lancashire Probation Trust is a criminal justice agency responsible for punishing and rehabilitating offenders in Lancashire, England. It is one of 35 probation trusts in England and Wales that make up the National Probation Service. The Minist ...


Notes


External links

*
Probation Statistics 2002

Managing Offenders, reducing Crime - Home Office paper describing proposals for NOMS

Excel spreadsheet linked to downloadable National Probation Service Circulars issued 1996 to 2007.

Rehabilitation versus punishment – judge for yourself
press release from the ministry of Justice for an interactive media overview of the England & Wales probation process
Video clip about Desistance and Probation Practice Research
by th
Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
{{Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom) Penal system in England Prison and correctional agencies Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom) 1997 establishments in England Penal system in Wales 1997 establishments in Wales Government agencies established in 1997 1997 in British law Probation