Speeches by Farnsworth.

“Nicola, I have a quick follow-up question regarding electronic monitoring. You did not mention anything about monitoring alcohol levels, which I know involves pretty new technology. Is any work going on in relation to that within the Probation Service?”

“Chris mentioned the impact of prison capacity issues. We could probably talk about this question for a long time, so maybe limit your answers, but is the court backlog and the fact that a large proportion of the prison population are people who have been remanded into custody, and who may have served their sentence at …”

“Thank you; that is very useful.”

“Do you have anything to add, Linda?”

“Thank you; that is really useful, Chris. The reason I came to you last was that I was going to ask you some follow-up questions about co-commissioning, but you have covered that, so thank you very much. Can I ask Nicola and Linda about the Justice Transcribe pilot? How successful has it been in your regions?”

“That is great. I am old enough to remember the community justice initiative under the last Labour Government. That is all really interesting to me, so thank you for that. Chris, could you answer the same question?”

“I do not really want to move off such positivity, but I have to ask each of you another question, but in a different order. What are the biggest challenges in your specific region, perhaps beyond the budget, money, and resource? What prevents the service from focusing on promoting rehabilitation the most? Could we go t…”

“Thank you; that is really useful, Chris. The reason I came to you last was that I was going to ask you some follow-up questions about co-commissioning, but you have covered that, so thank you very much. Can I ask Nicola and Linda about the Justice Transcribe pilot? How successful has it been in your regions?”

“Do offenders know it is being used? How has that been welcomed, or otherwise, by those your probation officers work with?”

“Chris mentioned the impact of prison capacity issues. We could probably talk about this question for a long time, so maybe limit your answers, but is the court backlog and the fact that a large proportion of the prison population are people who have been remanded into custody, and who may have served their sentence at …”

“Martin, you mentioned, almost in passing, the youth justice service—the arm of the Probation Service that supports young people. I think it performs far better than its adult counterpart. Could you give us your insight into why that might be?”

“Thank you; that is very useful.”

“Good afternoon. I am Linsey Farnsworth, the Member of Parliament for Amber Valley and a former Crown prosecutor. My interests are as declared on the register, but of significance for today, I am the co-chair of the APPG on legal and constitutional affairs and a member of the APPG on access to justice.”

“Nicola, I have a quick follow-up question regarding electronic monitoring. You did not mention anything about monitoring alcohol levels, which I know involves pretty new technology. Is any work going on in relation to that within the Probation Service?”

“I want to ask each of you the same question, but specifically in relation to your region. What do you believe is a key strength of your region in how it promotes rehabilitation?”

“Do you have anything to add, Linda?”

“Flipping it over into the opposite, what, beyond resourcing, do you think the challenges are that prevent the service from focusing on promoting rehabilitation? You will have heard me ask earlier about the court backlog, the remand population, and people being released straight away on sentencing. Is that also a challe…”

“That is great. I am old enough to remember the community justice initiative under the last Labour Government. That is all really interesting to me, so thank you for that. Chris, could you answer the same question?”

“From what I have heard today, that certainly seems to be the direction of travel with the changes that have been brought in and with the work that you and your directors are doing. You mentioned a sustainable caseload. If we switch that to probation officers, what would that look like for the adult probation teams?”

“You heard me asking the directors earlier about what they felt they were doing well in their regions to promote rehabilitation and resettlement and reduce offending. We heard from each of those three areas, but with your oversight of the whole of England and Wales, do you have any themes in terms of what you think the …”