Kelvin Hopkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance he has given magistrates in England and Wales on the introduction of the risk of serious recidivism tool into the National Probation Service following the introduction of the Transforming Rehabilitation model in England and Wales.

Jeremy Wright

The new Risk of Serious Recidivism (RSR) tool will be used to inform the allocation of cases to either the National Probation Service (NPS) or a Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC). We have begun the roll out of the tool to all Trusts, and have ensured that it is designed to minimise unnecessary bureaucracy so that staff working in the NPS or a CRC can spend more of their time managing and rehabilitating offenders.

The RSR tool is an aid for probation staff and we have not issued magistrates with specific guidance on it. However, the Department engages regularly with the magistracy about the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms via the National Sentencer Probation Forum, as well as through other regular communication channels. Our intention is to ensure that the magistracy and sentencers more widely are fully informed about the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms. Training for the magistracy and any sentencing guidelines relating to the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 is a matter for the independent Judicial College and the Sentencing Council respectively.