I appreciate that constituents have concerns about the Probation Service. 

Under 0.5 per cent of the over 200,000 offenders subject to probation supervision every year are convicted of a serious further offence. The Government recognises that each one is a tragedy. Every serious further offence is investigated thoroughly and remedial action taken wherever failings are found.

I know that HM Prison and Probation Service has accepted HM Inspectorate of Probation’s recommendations in light of the murder of Zara Aleena by a criminal released on probation in 2022 and drawn up a comprehensive action plan to learn from mistakes and ensure public protection is strengthened. This includes improved information sharing between the prison and probation services and checks to ensure that every recall request happens on time. 

In addition, urgent work is underway to improve the quality of risk assessments through updated mandatory training for all new staff and strengthened quality checks of risk assessments. The Probation Service is enhancing the recall process to ensure that all recalls are submitted within 24hrs. We are also creating a new alert to ensure that no recall requests are missed due to human error.

More broadly, the Government is investing £155 million a year into the Probation Service to recruit thousands more officers - I am pleased that, as a result, the number of full-time equivalent staff has increased by nearly 10 per cent in the last year. This will help the Probation Service deliver tougher supervision and ensure these sorts of tragedies can never happen again.