Probation: Standards

Mr. Llwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to merge NOMS Probation Standards with the Probation National Standards.

Mr. Sutcliffe
The probation service’s National Standards are being merged with the NOMS Offender Management Standards.

Mr. Llwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the consistency between the National Standards for Probation issued by the National Offender Management Service and the Probation National Standards; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Sutcliffe
[holding answer 22 February 2007]: The probation service currently operates under a set of National Standards introduced in 2005. Another set of standards, the NOMS Offender Management Standards, was published last year but has not been implemented. There are some inconsistencies between the two sets of standards but work is underway to merge them into a single coherent document.