Probation: Finance

Mr. Llwyd
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how the additional £1.6 million funding awarded to the Probation Service in Wales in 2010-11 is to be allocated.

Maria Eagle
The Director of Offender Management in Wales (DOM) is responsible for allocating the additional funding. This will be used as part of the DOM's commissioning responsibility to deliver offender services in Wales.

Currently commissioning priorities are being considered and discussed with the probation service. These include increasing offender services around community resettlement, alternatives to short custodial sentences and increasing provision to support women offenders. The outcome of those discussions will help determine the range of offender services to be delivered through probation. Discussions have also included how the delivery of such additional services could provide jobs for trainee probation officers.