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18 Apr 2006 : Column 352W—continued
Probation Service
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding the Probation Service received in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [62719]
Fiona Mactaggart: Funding provided to the probation service is as follows:
| Resource | Capital | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 595 | 34 |
| 2002–03 | 645 | 40 |
| 2003–04 | (125)819 | 33 |
| 2004–05 | (126)872 | 29 |
| 2005–06 | (127)794 | (128)6 |
(125) Includes £77 million electronic monitoring.
(126) Includes £79 million electronic monitoring.
(127) After transfer of certain functions to NOMS HQ (including electronic monitoring).
(128) After transfer of estates function to NOMS HQ.
After adjusting for organisational changes affecting the scope of the probation service, accounting changes and inflation, the real terms increase in resource budget from 2001–02 to 2005–06 was 29 per cent.
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many additional probation staff will be recruited (a) during the financial year 2006–07 and (b) in each of the following five financial years to deal with the impact of Custody Plus on caseloads. [63078]
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Fiona Mactaggart: The number of probation staff expressed as full time equivalents increased from 13,968 in 1997 to 20,138 at the end of September 2005. This is a very significant increase.
To meet the resource needs of the new sentencing framework in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, most of the provisions of which were implemented in April 2005, Probation Officer numbers rose from 6,376 in September 2004 to 6,529 in September 2005 and are projected to rise again to 7,244 by September 2007. By that time Custody Plus will be in operation, completing implementation of the sentences in the 2003 Act. Current Probation Officer projections go as far as September 2009 when the figure is planned to be 7,344.
Numbers of the more junior practitioner grade of Probation Service Officer (PSO) are also increasing significantly, currently running at some 2 per cent. per quarter. They increased by 672 between 31 March 2004 and 30 September 2005 and funding for a further 700 has been provided to probation boards for 2006–07. Funding, recruitment and training arrangements for PSOs are different from those for Probation Officers and, as such, PSO projections do not extend as far ahead as those for Probation Officers.
The staffing needs of Custody Plus are not identified separately from those of the 2003 Act as a whole.
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many trained probation officers were in post in each year since 2002. [63079]
Fiona Mactaggart: Information is not available for the full period requested. Data collected prior to 1 April 2003 are unreliable, and are not directly comparable with the more accurate figures collected since that time. The figures presented in the following table show full-time equivalent (FTE) figures at the close of each" quarter from 1 April 2003 to 31 December 2005.
| Quarter | Probation officers(129) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2003–04 | 1 | 5831.10 |
| 2 | 5937.84 | |
| 3 | 6271.45 | |
| 4 | 6285.43 | |
| 2004–05 | 1 | 6257.32 |
| 2 | 6376.48 | |
| 3 | 6584.94 | |
| 4 | 6566.63 | |
| 2005–06 | 1 | 6469.84 |
| 2 | 6529.41 | |
| (130)3 | 6890.66 |
(129) The 'probation officers' category includes the senior probation officer, senior practitioner, and probation officer job groups. Trainee probation officers have been excluded from these figures.
(130) The latest figures are as yet unpublished and are currently being validated. As a result of this they may be subject to change.
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many support staff in the probation service were in post in each year since 2002. [63080]
Fiona Mactaggart:
Information is not available for the full period requested. Data collected prior to 1 April 2003 are unreliable, and are not directly comparable with the more accurate figures collected since that time.
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The figures presented in the following table, show the number of staff, in terms of full time equivalent value, employed in a support capacity at the close of each from 1 April 2003 to 31 December 2005.
The majority of support staff in the National Probation Service provide dedicated services as part of multi-disciplinary operational teams. As such, these staff are generally considered to be part of the operational resource. However, in order to give a more accurate representation of the total number of staff engaged in support work, this group of staff have been included in the table below alongside those staff who provide non-operational support services.
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many trained probation service officers were in post in each year since 2002. [63603]
Fiona Mactaggart: Information is not available for the full period requested. Data collected prior to 1 April 2003 are unreliable, and are not directly comparable with the more accurate figures collected since that time. The figures presented as follows show the number of staff, in terms of full-time equivalent value, employed as probation service officers at the close of each quarter from 1 April 2003 to 31 December 2005.
(131) These latest figures are as yet unpublished and are currently being validated. As a result of this they may be subject to change.
Project Olass
Julie Morgan:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions took place between
18 Apr 2006 : Column 355W
his Department and the Public and Commercial Services Union in advance of the proposed tendering timescale for the second phase of Project Olass. [63188]
Fiona Mactaggart: The tendering process for the Offender Learning and Skills Strategy is led by the Learning and Skills Council as the commissioning organisation. However, HM Prison Service discusses operational issues associated with the transfer on a quarterly basis with the Public and Commercial Services Union. The tendering process and timetable for the second phase of the project was discussed at the last meeting on 26 January 2006.
Proscribed Organisations
Mr. Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the reasons for including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the list of Proscribed Organisations in Schedule 2 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in March 2001. [63114]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was proscribed in March 2001 because the then Home Secretary decided that it met the criteria for proscription laid down in section three of the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT) This decision was endorsed by Parliament.
The list of proscribed organisations is kept under constant review. It is established policy not to comment further on any information or intelligence we hold in relation to a specific group on the list of proscribed organisations.
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