Mr Elfyn Llwyd – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Elfyn Llwyd on 2014-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what criteria will be used to identify preferred bidders for probation contracts.

Jeremy Wright

Under our Transforming Rehabilitation proposals we are opening up the market to a diverse range of new providers across the public, private and voluntary sectors to bring innovation to rehabilitative services and help deliver reductions in reoffending rates. We are currently engaged in a competition to appoint the 21 owners of the new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) which will be responsible for the provision of services to all but those offenders which pose the highest risk. We will assess the bids we receive over the summer, and appoint CRC owners later this year. Offers will be evaluated using quality and financial criteria. We expect the new owners to implement their new operating models during 2015.

We are taking a staged approach to implementation and are rolling out business readiness tests at key stages of implementation so that we can ensure we are managing the transition to the new system in a safe and measured way which maintains public protection.