Offenders: Reoffending

House of Lords written question – answered at on 3 March 2014.

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Photo of Lord Carlile of Berriew Lord Carlile of Berriew Liberal Democrat

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what training probation staff in England and Wales will receive in order to apply the new Risk of Serious Recidivism calculator.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what additional guidance will be given to probation staff when using the Risk of Serious Recidivism calculator.

Photo of Lord Faulks Lord Faulks The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice

Public protection is at the heart of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. The National Probation Service (NPS) will carry out a risk assessment of all offenders and will be responsible for the direct management of those offenders who pose the highest risk of serious harm to the public and who have committed the most serious offences. Every offender will be risk assessed prior to allocation to any probation provider and their risk will be reviewed when there are indicators that their risk of serious harm has increased to high. Offenders who are deemed to pose a medium and low risk will be managed by a Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC).

In order to assist with the risk assessment of offenders, we have developed a Risk of Serious Recidivism (RSR) predictor which uses the same analytical approach as our existing predictors OGRS and the OASys Violence Predictor (OVP). This is an established methodology subject to quality assurance and peer review. The predictor and user guidance has been thoroughly tested with a number of Trusts and has been shown to be a strong predictor of serious reoffending. Training has begun and will be cascaded through Trusts to all staff who need to use the tool. Comprehensive user guidance has recently been issued to Trusts to facilitate transition to the new processes.

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