Probation Service to give evidence on community sentences
Monday 19 June 2023
Tomorrow the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee will be discussing the challenges faced by the Probation Service, as well as best practices in the delivery of community sentences, as it continues its inquiry on community sentences in England and Wales.
Giving evidence will be:
- Kim Thornden-Edwards, Chief Probation Officer for England and Wales at HM Prison and Probation Service
- Chris Jennings, Executive Director Wales at HM Prison and Probation Service
Possible questions include:
- 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?
The session can be followed live on Tuesday 20 June from 10:30am on Parliament TV.
