§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what steps he intends to take to speed up the provision of pre-sentence reports by the probation service; [101175]
(2) what plans he has to speed up the provision of pre-sentence reports; and what the average time has been in the last 12 months for the provision of pre-sentence reports, broken down by magistrate' court. [101166]
§ Hilary BennChief Officers of Probation are responsible for the provision of probation services in their area, including the provision of pre-sentence reports to the courts. To assist performance in this area, the National Probation Directorate (NPD) has issued guidance to areas on effectively prioritising workloads and developing local protocols with courts. The NPD has also formulated a revised agreement with the Crown Prosecution Service and the Police for the provision of necessary advance information to the Probation Service to help with the timely production of pre-sentence reports for the courts. The NPD will continue to monitor performance of probation areas on the provision of pre-sentence reports and to consider ways to improve performance.
Information is not available centrally on average times for probation officers to submit reports to individual magistrates' courts. National Standards for the Supervision of Offenders in the Community 2000 (revised 2002), which apply to the National Probation Service for England and Wales, require pre-sentence reports to be prepared within 15 working days of request by the court. The National Probation Service currently has a target to produce 90 per cent. of pre-sentence reports within 15 days. The latest figures, which relate to magistrates' courts, show that for all probation areas in 2001–02, 79 per cent. of reports were provided within the 15-day target.