HC Deb 19 January 2004 vol 416 cc1067-8
9. Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)

How many posts are vacant in the probation service. [148332]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Paul Goggins)

The latest figures show that there are 1,060 vacancies. That equates to 5.6 per cent. of a total work force of 18,851.

Tom Brake

The vacancy rate is alarmingly high. The alarm in the probation service was confirmed when I met my local probation officers a couple of weeks ago.

My hon. Friend the Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) received a parliamentary answer in November 2002 stating that there were 231 vacancies in London for probation officers. A recent parliamentary answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) showed that by June 2003 the figure had fallen to zero and that the shortfall was therefore eliminated in seven months. Will the Minister comment on whether that happened or whether the establishment has been reduced by that figure to show that there are now no vacancies?

Paul Goggins

I reassure the hon. Gentleman that the establishment has not been reduced. However, the figure has changed since the earlier parliamentary answer. There are 166 vacancies in London, but I assure him that there has been no reduction in the establishment. The Government's commitment to ensuring that there are sufficient probation officers in training and in service is illustrated by the current number of trainee probation officers, 1,520, and the figure for 1996, which was a nice round figure—nought.

Mrs. Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham) (Con)

With the shortages of prison officers and the addition of the proposed national offender management service, the probation service will be forced to make major changes when it is already understaffed and overstretched. It was recently reorganised in 2001 and is now sinking under bureaucracy. With a senior member of the probation service saying, We are drowning in audits and inspections and regulations and have very little time left to deal with offenders", how will the Minister avoid the new agency burying probation staff in even more red tape?

Paul Goggins

I welcome the hon. Lady to her new role and look forward to many interesting debates with her across the Floor of the House.

I do not know where the hon. Lady gets her information. Many of the responses on the national offender management service that have been returned to me have been very positive. Far from the dearth of probation officers that she describes, 4,300 more probation service staff are employed today than when the Conservative Government left office. The national offender management service has received a generally warm welcome and joining up prisons and probation will be a wholly good thing. I invite her to be more enthusiastic about it after she has studied it in greater detail.