The National Probation Service (NPS) is a law enforcement agency and public authority, and is therefore bound by the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which came into effect on 1st January 2005. This means that members of the public have a right to access information held by the NPS.

Under the Act, the National Probation Directorate (NPD), the head office of the NPS, has undertaken to adopt and maintain a scheme for the publication of probation service information. The scheme aims to explain what information the NPD routinely makes available to the public and provides methods of accessing this information.

To view a local probation area's publication scheme, either click on the link to their website on the Local Probation Area page, and click here to view the National Probation Directorate's publication scheme.

The National Probation Service (NPS) has brought fresh aims and duties for probation, it has accelerated the development of effective ways of working with offenders and it has created new central and local structures.

Each year the probation service commences the supervision of some 175,000 offenders. The caseload on any given day is in excess of 200,000. Approximately 90% are male and 10% are female.  Just over a quarter of offenders serving community sentences are aged 16-20 and just less than three-quarters are aged 21 and over.

Approximately 70% of offenders supervised will be on community sentences, and 30% imprisoned with a period of statutory licence supervision in the community as an integral part of the sentence.

All NPS work with offenders combines continuous assessment and management of risk and dangerousness with the provision of expert supervision programmes designed to reduce re-offending. Enforcement of the order/licence conditions is a priority.

Each year the NPS will assist magistrates and judges in their sentencing decisions through the provision of about 246,000 pre-sentence reports, and 20,000 bail information reports.

Each year probation service staff will find and supervise some 8 million hours of unpaid work by offenders in local communities, to ensure that they meet the requirements of their community punishment orders.

The NPS makes a critical contribution to decisions about the early release of prisoners through the production of reports (approximately 87,000 annually) which combine risk and dangerousness assessments with community supervision plan proposals.

100 approved probation hostels will continue to play a major role in the NPS public protection strategy, providing controlled environments for offenders on bail, community sentences and post custody licences.

Where the victims of the most serious violent, including sexually violent, crimes are contactable and wish it, the impact of the offence and their concerns form a part of the pre- and post-custody release risk assessments written probation staff (c. 50,000 cases per annum and rising).

Many probation staff are seconded to work in youth offending teams, prisons and a wide range of other public protection and crime prevention or reduction partnership agencies. Their skills, particularly in assessing risk and dangerousness, are highly valued.


Our Information Charter

The Ministry of Justice sets out in our information charter the standards that you can expect from us when we request or hold personal information about you; how you can get access to your personal data; and what you can do if you think those standards are not being met. The information charter and further information is available from the MoJ website: http://www.justice.gov.uk/requestinginformation.htm


Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Frequently Asked Questions (file size 52kb)