David Drew
Labour, Stroud
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many vacancies for (a) probation officers and (b) probation service officers there were for each probation area on the latest date for which figures are available.
Gerry Sutcliffe
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
Not all probation areas in the national probation service operate a set establishment against which vacant posts can be measured. As a more representative alternative, probation areas are required to report regularly on the number of active vacancies they have. An active vacancy is one which a probation area is actively trying to fill through a recruitment process.
Figures for
Additionally, the national probation service employs 6,544.28 full-time equivalent probation service officers, who also deliver front-line services to offenders. At this time, there were 347.30 full-time equivalent vacancies, equating to 5.04 per cent. of the total posts available.
The figures presented in the table show active vacancies for each area, in terms of full-time equivalent value, for the probation officer and probation service officer grades at the close of Quarter four 05/06 (
| Probation Officer and Probation Service officers vacancies, as at 31 March 2006 | |||||
| Area | Vacancies (all grades) | PO vacancies | PO vacancies (as a percentage of total PO posts( 1) ) | PSO vacancies | PSO vacancies (as a percentage of total PSO posts( 1) ) |
| Avon and Somerset | 20.00 | 6.50 | 3.07 | 6.10 | 3.12 |
| Bedfordshire | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Cambridgeshire | 10.42 | 5.60 | 5.64 | 4.60 | 5.27 |
| Cheshire | 5.56 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.50 | 1.95 |
| Cumbria | 9.69 | 1.00 | 1.30 | 4.00 | 9.60 |
| Derbyshire | 11.50 | 1.50 | 1.08 | 4.00 | 3.52 |
| Devon and Cornwall | 9.10 | 3.40 | 1.72 | 1.00 | 0.68 |
| Dorset | 5.80 | 3.00 | 3.41 | 0.30 | 0.39 |
| Durham | 15.00 | 15.00 | 10.96 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Dyfed Powys | 18.58 | 3.70 | 5.61 | 4.48 | 8.23 |
| Essex | 12.10 | 2.00 | 1.26 | 4.60 | 2.65 |
| Gloucestershire | 8.00 | 4.00 | 5.97 | 1.00 | 2.28 |
| Greater Manchester(2) | n/k | n/k | — | n/k | — |
| Gwent | 19.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 7.00 | 6.86 |
| Hampshire | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Hertfordshire | 21.32 | 10.10 | 10.58 | 7.22 | 8.04 |
| Humberside | 17.00 | 7.00 | 3.57 | 3.60 | 2.20 |
| Kent | 11.02 | 3.00 | 1.54 | 4.02 | 2.26 |
| Lancashire | 9.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 6.00 | 3.84 |
| Leicestershire | 16.50 | 5.00 | 2.94 | 5.50 | 2.68 |
| Lincolnshire | 5.00 | 4.00 | 4.70 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| London | 486.50 | 64.50 | 5.70 | 224.00 | 18.88 |
| Merseyside(3) | n/k | n/k | — | n/k | — |
| Norfolk | 2.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.00 | 1.51 |
| North Wales | 5.40 | 1.00 | 0.92 | 2.40 | 2.87 |
| North Yorkshire | 11.20 | 2.50 | 2.56 | 5.50 | 10.81 |
| Northamptonshire | 19.10 | 9.00 | 8.36 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Northumbria | 7.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 4.00 | 2.17 |
| Nottinghamshire | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| South Wales | 10.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| South Yorkshire | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Staffordshire | 30.10 | 11.50 | 6.24 | 6.50 | 6.95 |
| Suffolk | 8.44 | 2.90 | 2.87 | 4.54 | 5.62 |
| Surrey | 19.10 | 3.60 | 4.11 | 3.80 | 3.54 |
| Sussex | 5.70 | 1.00 | 0.59 | 1.20 | 0.91 |
| Teesside | 45.31 | 26.00 | 16.62 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| Thames Valley | 41.00 | 15.00 | 6.22 | 8.00 | 3.32 |
| Warwickshire | 7.18 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 2.44 | 4.92 |
| West Mercia | 15.00 | 0.90 | 0.53 | 5.10 | 4.14 |
| West Midlands(2) | n/k | n/k | — | — | — |
| West Yorkshire | 10.00 | 1.00 | 0.24 | 7.00 | 2.48 |
| Wiltshire | 29.70 | 14.00 | 16.43 | 4.90 | 9.25 |
| NPS | 977.32 | 227.70 | 2.68 | 347.30 | 5.04 |
| (1) Total PO and PSO posts are 'staff in post' plus the number of active vacancies. (2) Greater Manchester and West Midlands probation areas are unable to provide data on active vacancies. (3) Merseyside probation area are not actively recruiting. | |||||
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