Britain’s biggest union has called for the Probation Service to be removed from civil service control after a damning report from MPs flagged staffing concerns and questioned the service’s ability to turn around record-high reoffending rates.
Unison, which counts probation officers, other civil servants, health professionals and social workers among its 1.3 million members, said ministers should make good on a 2024 general-election manifesto pledge and review the governance of probation “without further delay”.
An MoJ spokesperson said the current Labour government inherited a Probation Service "under immense pressure which has placed too great a burden on our hardworking staff", adding that the government is fixing this with a record £700m funding increase.
Before the Transforming Rehabilitation programme was launched by the coalition government in 2014, probation trusts separate from the Ministry of Justice were responsible for providing services. The 35 trusts in England and Wales were responsible for overseeing offenders in the community and providing specialist services in courts and prisons.
Since June 2021, following the scrapping of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, probation services have been unified at HM Prison and Probation Service, which is part of the MoJ.
A report from parliament’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday said the number of offenders recalled to prison is at an all-time high, accounting for 15,583 inmates at the end of March last year – or 15% of the overall prison population. MPs said the figure represented a 49% increase since June 2021.
Following their inquiry, sparked by a critical National Audit Office report in October, MPs questioned whether HMPPS has a proper understanding of how many staff it needs to sufficiently improve probation performance.
They also cautioned that changes planned by HMPPS are likely to reduce the supervision provided to so-called “low-risk” offenders, even though evidence presented to the inquiry showed that such people often needed support to prevent reoffending.
Ben Priestley, Unison’s national officer for probation, said ministers should take probation services away from direct MoJ control and return to a model in line with what was in place before the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms.
“We are campaigning for probation to be removed from civil service control and re-localised under local democratic control with local management again,” he said.
“Successive independent reports in the last 12 months by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, the National Audit Office and now the Public Accounts Committee lay bare the failings of the probation service under civil service control.
“The Ministry of Justice has had 12 years to get to grips with running probation and instead of improving over this time, probation has just got worse.”
Priestley added: “Labour promised to review the governance of probation in its 2024 manifesto. Unison calls on the government to make good on this promise without further delay.”
A service ‘built on emotional strain and trauma’
October’s NAO report said HMPPS had underestimated the number of staff it required by around one-third – or 5,400 officers – and had been under “significant strain” with worsening performance since 2021. The watchdog said a contributory factor to the poor performance was inexperienced staff and gaps in crititcal roles.
It said HMPPS’s Our Future Probation Service programme, which targets reducing workloads by 25% across the service through improving existing processes and changing the scope of supervision, was likely to increase pressure within the service.
Yesterday’s PAC report echoed those concerns. MPs said the vacancy rate for probation officers had increased from 14% in 2021 to 21% in 2025 and that probation officers are estimated to have been working on average at 118% capacity for several years. They said the inquiry heard evidence that the Probation Service's culture is built on “emotional strain” and “trauma".
PAC members said they were sceptical that HMPPS has a real understanding of how many are needed to sufficiently improve performance. They said that even if HMPPS recruits as many staff as it currently plans, it would still need to address a staff shortage of at least 3,150 officers out of 15,000 sentence-management staff required.
“It aims to address this gap by March 2027, by reducing workloads through introducing new digital tools, improving processes, and changes to the level of supervision for some offenders,” the PAC report said. “However, these changes may cause further disruption, and increase pressure on staff who are already significantly overworked.”
Committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said the fact that the number of offenders recalled to prison is at an all-time high is evidence the Probation Service in England and Wales is failing.
“It was deeply alarming to hear of probation staff working under immense pressure in a seemingly toxic environment, in a culture built on emotional strain and trauma,” he said. “This not only raises concerns about the toll the overall system is taking on their mental health but the impact it is having on their ability to perform their duties. The public’s safety relies on them doing so.
“Unfortunately, the landscape for probation is not going to become more forgiving for a service which has slipped into decline in recent years, as plans to free up capacity, including with early release schemes, in other parts of the crisis-ridden justice system are likely to increase demand.
"Well-run probation is a must-have, helping those who have served their time find their place back in society. HMPPS accepts that the current picture is unsustainable, but its own planned changes could cause further disruption and place more pressure on overstretched staff. The Probation Service is already teetering on the brink. Government’s immediate goal must be to avoid making matters worse.”
Among its recommendations, the report calls for HMPPS to set out when and how it expects to be able to provide clarity to staff on when their workloads will reduce to acceptable levels.
An MoJ spokesperson said: “This government inherited a Probation Service under immense pressure which has placed too great a burden on our hardworking staff.
“We're fixing it by committing to a record £700m funding increase, recruiting 1,300 probation officers and investing in new technology that will cut a quarter of a million days’ worth of admin – these changes will help staff focus on reducing reoffending and protecting the public.”
The department added that it had launched a new Independent Review, Resolution and Investigations Service last month, giving staff a safe, independent way to raise concerns about bullying, harassment or discrimination.
The move follows recommendations in a review of professional standards conducted by MoJ non-executive director Jennifer Rademaker last year.