Lords Committee takes evidence on community sentences
The Justice and Home Affairs Committee is holding its sixth oral evidence session as part of its inquiry on community sentences.
Meeting details
At 10:30am: Oral evidence
Inquiry
Community sentences
Chief Probation Officer for England and Wales at HM Prison and Probation Service
Executive Director Wales at HM Prison and Probation Service
The Justice and Home Affairs Committee continues its inquiry on community sentences in England and Wales. Today, it discusses the challenges faced by the Probation Service, as well as best practices in the delivery of community sentences, with two representatives of the Probation Service.
Possible questions
- What is the role of a Probation Officer in 2023? What tagline does it align best with: “advise, assist and befriend” or “assess, protect and change”?
- What steps are you taking to rise to the challenges the Probation Service is currently facing?
- In 2016, the National Audit Office attributed “severe inefficiencies” to the IT systems used by the Probation Service. What IT systems does the Probation Service use today in probation casework? How satisfied are you with these systems? If you were to rethink them entirely, what would you do differently and why?
- How effective is cooperation between the Probation Service, on one hand, and its delivery partners from the private and third sectors, on the other? For instance, how effective is cooperation with the NHS?
- Many contracts with the delivery partners of the Probation Service will expire in the first quarter of 2024. What process will be followed to renew them? What stage of that process have you reached?