Everything you want to know about probation
The most up-to-date data
This is the latest in my new series of compendiums of the latest data and trends in the criminal justice system. Following compendiums on prisons, sentencing, and offender equalities, this edition focuses on probation.
For the best experience, click through the visualisation at the bottom of this page, this allows you to hover over data points and see the exact data. If you can’t see the visualisation below on your device, you can find it here.
Topics covered include:
- The type of offences people are on probation for
- The decline of community sentences over the last decade
- Caseload figures (including changes in different forms of supervision)
- The offence profile of people on community supervision
- A breakdown of the popularity of different requirements on community orders and suspended sentence orders
- Successful completion rates (and reasons for termination) for community supervision
- The spectacular drop in the number of full Pre-Sentence reports
I hope you find them of use and interest.
Compendium last updated 3 December 2020
Criminal Justice Trends
Click below for up-to-date interactive charts using the latest official data.
Offender equalities
A wide range of prison statistics broken down by gender, ethnicity and age.
Probation
The latest caseload figures and trends, offender profiles and court reports.
Prison
Details of individual establishments, costs, population trends and safety in custody stats.
Sentencing
Compare sentencing outcomes, lengths and reoffending rates and index offences.
Recent Probation Posts
Co-producing digital media with probation
Rob Ferguson guest posts on the value of lived experience when developing digitally enabled interventions for people in prisons and probation.
Humberside, Lincs & North Yorks private probation still failing
Probation inspectors’ verdict on HYNYCRC: At the time of the inspection, staffing levels were too low. Workloads, sickness rates and vacancies for frontline staff were too high.
Sobriety tags come into force
The ankle tags, which are to be rolled out across England and Wales, perform around-the-clock monitoring of an offender’s sweat to determine whether alcohol has been consumed.
Probation not learning from serious further offences
Serious further offences inspection: The government and probation services are not doing enough to learn from past mistakes. Lessons must be learnt to prevent more tragedies in the future.
The latest prison and probation trends
Official data for 2019 shows fewer prison receptions, fewer prison releases but more recalls. Probation caseloads continue to fall.
Flexibility, persistence and moving forward
Nacro resettlement teams find that COVID-19 has brought them closer together and enabled them to create new partnerships and working practices.
HMPPS answers your questions about probation reform
The senior responsible officers at HMPPS respond to readers’ questions about the probation reform and workforce programmes.
South Yorkshire CRC “much improved”
Probation inspectors find South Yorkshire CRC “much” improved performance and upgrade rating to “good”.
Durham Tees Valley CRC improves performance
Probation inspectors find Durham Tees Valley CRC has improved performance and upgrade rating to “good”.
The pros and cons of probation community hubs
HMI Probation explores the role of community hubs in helping to deliver probation services and support desistance.
New research finds polygraphs effective for sex offenders
University of Kent research concludes that voluntary and mandatory polygraph testing increases the likelihood that individuals convicted or suspected of committing a sexual offence will reveal risk-relevant information.
The questions you asked HMPPS about probation reform
Full details of the questions readers asked of the senior responsible officers for the probation reform and workforce programmes.
