In a written statement to Parliament, the Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice on Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, confirmed that a new executive agency of the Ministry of Justice, called Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, will replace the National Offender Management Service from 1 April 2017.
The Service will have full responsibility for all operations across prison and probation, and will be responsible for the roll out of the Government’s programme to improve the way offender reform is approached, to protect the public and tackle re-offending. The Ministry of Justice will take charge of commissioning services, future policy development and be accountable for setting standards and scrutinising prison and probation performance.
She said that the creation of HM Prison and Probation Service will build a world-leading, specialist agency, dedicated to professionalising the prison and probation workforce, backed by an additional £100m a year and 2,500 additional prison officers – as previously announced in 2016.
The work of the Service will be further supported by measures within the Prison and Courts Bill, which aims at creating a new framework and clear system of accountability for prisons. Probation services will also offer improved training and learning opportunities for offenders to ensure they do not return to a life of crime, working with prisons to ensure a more integrated approach, on which more details are expected later this spring.
On a related note, during Security & Policing there will be a live immersive feature taking visitors on a journey through the criminal justice system, where a host of security-related equipment and technology suitable for the custody, court, prison and reform environments will be displayed.
