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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason the target for the proportion of cases under Probation Service supervision where the service responds to a breach of conditions by taking action in accordance with the national standards has not been met. [68785] Hilary Benn: [holding answer 11 July 2002]: Probation Service national standards provide clear guidelines on what the Probation Service is expected to deliver in respect of enforcement of breach action. Performance is closely monitored and there is clear evidence of an improvement increases of breach action from 51 per cent. of cases in 1998 to 70 per cent. in September 2000 (the last date for validated returns). This is against a target of 90 per cent. This improvement has been achieved at the same time as the standard against which performance was measured was significantly toughened during the period. The enforcement target is one of a package of targets for which there is a direct cash-related link to performance. That link supports the work which is being undertaken by the Probation Service to improve performance in this area through the review of enforcement procedures.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

68785; 389 c846-7W

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Community service orders Enforcement Probation orders Probation Standards

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk