§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total costs have been of introducing the Offender Assessment System for the prison and probation service; what estimates he has made of the time required for prison and probation officers to carry out assessments under the OASYS; how his Department proposes to monitor the effectiveness of the OASYS; and if he will make a statement. [62267]
§ Mr. Hilary BennThe Offender Assessment System (OASys) has not been fully introduced into the Prison and Probation services. The National Probation Service has started implementation of paper-based Offender assessments, while the Prison Service is intending to roll out on a computer-based system from April 2003.
The combined development costs for OASys from 1999–2002 are approximately £883,000. The cost to the National Probation Service of implementing the paper-based system for the financial year was approximately £173,000.
It has been estimated that on average it will take, on paper, 210 minutes for a Probation Officer and, electronically, 315 minutes for a Prison Officer to complete an initial OASys assessment.
OASys effectiveness will be monitored through comprehensive Management Information Systems developed by each service and when OASys is bedded in, performance targets for both services will be defined and monitored. The OASys Central Research Unit will continue to carry out investigations into the validity and reliability of the OASys system as well as the effectiveness of interventions designed and implemented across the Services. In addition, independent evaluation will be carried out or managed by the Home Office Research. Development and Statistics Directorate.