To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many offender managers employed by the National Offender Management Service are working with offenders in (a) the community and (b) custody; what the ratio is of offender managers to offenders in each case; and what plans she has to increase the number of offender managers in each category over the next four years. (137482)

The latest published figures indicate that there are over 6,200 offender managers in post across the 42 probation areas. The total caseload is over 170,000 in the community with an additional 59,000 in custody. Most offender managers will have a mixed caseload of community and custodial cases. A detailed breakdown cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.

Caseload sizes vary depending upon the nature of the cases being supervised. An offender manager responsible primarily for complex, high risk cases will have a much smaller caseload than an offender manager primarily responsible for less complex, low risk cases. The range of caseload sizes within a probation area may therefore be a wide one, perhaps from under 20 to over 80.

The number of offender managers appointed is a matter for probation boards to decide from within their overall allocation of resources. Decisions have yet to be made about resource allocations to probation boards for 2008-09 onward.