MP's Questions

Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield, Labour)

• To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the likely level of expenditure on the Probation Service in the next five years.

Maria Eagle (Minister of State (also in the Government Equalities Office), Ministry of Justice; Liverpool, Garston, Labour)

The budget for the National Probation Service for the 2010-11 financial year is £870 million.

Planning for the next spending review period, that is 2011-12 to 2013-14, will be considered as part of the next comprehensive review.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the year-on-year change in expenditure on the Probation Service has been in each of the last 15 years.

Maria Eagle (Minister of State (also in the Government Equalities Office), Ministry of Justice; Liverpool, Garston, Labour)

Change in expenditure by local probation areas is detailed in the following table:

The figures for 2001-02 to 2007-08 are the net operating costs recorded in the annual consolidated accounts of local probation boards. The figure for 2008-09 is provisional as the boards' consolidated accounts have not yet been signed off, and is taken from the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) 2008-09 accounts, including probation trusts. Before 2001-02, local probation committees were financed partly by local government and the figures are based on the expenditure implied by the main grant cash limit plus an allowance for probation hostels; these figures include some estimates.

Following standard accounting practice, local boards' and trusts' pension contributions are not fully reflected in the figures. Expenditure on probation met centrally by the former National Probation Directorate and the National Offender Management Service is not included in local areas' expenditure.

Comparisons over time are difficult because of machinery of government changes and accounting methodology changes. After adjusting as much as possible for these factors and discounting for inflation, the real terms increase in expenditure on probation between 1996-97 and 2007-08 is about 70 per cent.

Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff were employed in the Probation Service in each of the last 15 years.

Maria Eagle (Minister of State (also in the Government Equalities Office), Ministry of Justice; Liverpool, Garston, Labour)

The following table shows the number of staff employed in the National Probation Service in each of the last 15 years.

Probation has received significant increases in resources since this Government came to power in 1997. Our record shows that we take the probation service and its place in the Criminal Justice System very seriously. Total probation staffing (expressed as full time equivalents) was up from 13,968 in 1997 to 20,859 by September 2008 a 49.3 per cent. increase over the period.