§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list those prisons at which probation officers are currently based; and how many of these are scheduled to lose their prison-based probation officers as a result of changes being implemented by his Department. [7027]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from A. J. Pearson to Mr. Dafydd Wigley, dated 19 December 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about prison-based probation officers.All prison establishments currently have probation officers working in them on secondment from their home service. Governors are looking critically at how the functions of their establishments are being delivered with a view to improving operating efficiency next year. Until the process is complete and their 1996–97 budgets have been finalised it is not possible to predict how many prisons might reduce or restructure their complement of seconded probation staff.