Prison and probation services in England and Wales

Approximate read time: 20 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to debate the following motion on 17 September 2026:

Lord Farmer (Conservative) to move that this House takes note of the state of the prison and probation service in England and Wales.

1. Key points

• Parliamentary committees have highlighted pressures across prison and probation services in England and Wales. The evidence suggests issues such as prison overcrowding, staff shortages and rising probation workloads hinder the rehabilitation of prisoners, public protection and justice system performance.
• A key finding from parliamentary scrutiny is that prison and probation services are being required to manage growing demand with constrained operational capacity. The prison population was nearly 87,000 on 7 September 2026, with the useable operational capacity being around 89,000. The population is projected to reach 100,000 by March 2030. Over 248,500 offenders were on probation in December 2025, a 3% rise since the previous year.
• Government reforms are focused on creating additional prison places and introducing earlier release on licence for some offenders. Other policies include investment in probation staff recruitment and the expansion of public protection measures such as electronic tagging and drugs testing.
• Views differ on whether expanding prison capacity would improve the current system. Several stakeholders argue that sustainable reform also requires greater investment in areas such as rehabilitation and support services.

2. Background on prison and probation services

Prisons in England and Wales are almost full. The prison population stood at 86,868 on 7 September 2026, with the useable operational capacity of the estate being 88,943.^[1] This represented a small decrease in population since a record of 87,300 in 2024, having quadrupled in size since 1900.^[2] However, the prison population is projected to increase to a central estimate of over 100,000 by March 2030.^[3]

The Probation Service supervises offenders who are released from prison into the community or who receive community sentences at the outset. The number of offenders on probation at the end of December 2025 was 248,568.^[4] While the caseload has remained broadly stable over recent years, it had risen by 3% since December 2024.

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is responsible for running prison and probation services in England and Wales.^[5] This executive agency is made up of HM Prison Service, the Probation Service and the Youth Custody Service.

3. Parliamentary scrutiny of prison and probation services

Since July 2025, three parliamentary committees have expressed concern about the state of prison and probation services in England and Wales. Key themes raised during inquiries included staffing shortages, excessive workloads, weaknesses in public protection, prison overcrowding, limited rehabilitative activity, poor prison conditions, and questions about whether current reform programmes would be sufficient to address longstanding structural pressures on the prison and probation system. The committees’ findings were set out in the following reports, which are summarised in the subsections below:

• House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee, ‘Better prisons: Less crime’, 16 July 2025, HL 153 of session 2024–26
• House of Commons Justice Committee, ‘Ending the cycle of reoffending: Part one—rehabilitation in prisons’, 14 November 2025, HC 469 of session 2024–26
• House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, ‘Efficiency and resilience of the Probation Service’, 4 February 2026, HC 1235 of session 2024–26

3.1 Governance, leadership and staffing of prisons

The House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee’s report ‘Better prisons: Less crime’ (16 July 2025) warned prisons were “operating in a state of crisis”.^[6] The committee highlighted various issues within the prison system, including overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, a shortage of funding, criminal activity, the availability of drugs and staffing issues.^[7] It also said the current state of prisons hindered the provision of “purposeful and productive” activities. The committee contended this could prevent prisoners from seeking mental health and addiction support, as well as securing training and educational opportunities to help prepare them for life after prison. Overall, the committee argued the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HMPPS had failed to improve the prison service to reduce re-offending and that it was now in “a parlous state”. The report included a range of recommendations focused on key areas such as the purpose of prisons, prison governors, staffing, purposeful activity and accountability.

The government responded to the committee’s report on 12 September 2025.^[8] Lord Timpson, the then minister for prisons, probation and reducing reoffending, said the government would be accepting 19 of the committee’s recommendations, partially accepting 15 and rejecting one.^[9] Accepted recommendations included that the MoJ should take steps to improve access to a more diverse range of educational opportunities in prisons. Lord Timpson said this work was in progress, including collaboration with the Department for Education to widen access to skills training for prisoners.

For details about the committee’s findings and the government’s response, see the House of Lords Library briefing ‘‘Better prisons, less crime’: Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee report’ (5 February 2026).

3.2 Rehabilitation within prisons

The House of Commons Justice Committee’s report ‘Ending the cycle of reoffending: Part one—rehabilitation in prisons’ (14 November 2025) focused on rehabilitation within prisons. It warned that “dire” prison conditions were putting rehabilitation and reoffending reduction at risk.^[10] The committee said it found current conditions across the prison estate were not conducive to rehabilitation.^[11] Committee members described how overcrowding had led to “arbitrary prisoner transfers, disrupted sentence progression, and reduced access to purposeful activity, education, and family contact”.

The committee noted how remand prisoners made up 20% of the prison population: the highest level in at least 50 years.^[12] ‘Remand prisoners’ refers to those charged with a crime and held in prison until their trial or sentencing hearing.^[13] They do not have access to the same regime as convicted prisoners such as education and rehabilitative programmes. The committee raised concerns about how the government expected these individuals to avoid reoffending and called on them to be given access to all parts of the regime.^[14]

The committee also highlighted problems with staff shortages in prisons.^[15] Alongside the high turnover of staff, the report said poor recruitment processes and limited professional development had all contributed to “a culture that hinders rehabilitation”. The committee recommended prison staff should receive annual training as a minimum, along with career support.

Other issues included limited rehabilitation, dilapidated buildings and broken infrastructure, as well as “underfunded and poorly delivered” prison education.^[16] The committee noted that education on the youth estate was also in a “state of decline”. Additionally, it said health and wellbeing services were failing to meet the needs of prisoners including women in prison facing acute and complex health needs. It called on the government to set out a clear plan for meeting health and wellbeing needs of women in prison.

The committee said it was “deeply concerned by the widespread failure to meet the statutory minimum [of 120 minutes per day] for time out of cell”.^[17] It reported prisoners being locked up for 22 hours or more each day, with limited access to fresh air, showers or rehabilitative activities. The committee stated this lack of time out of cell undermined efforts to reduce reoffending and contributed to poor mental health and disengagement. The committee called for a renewed focus on ensuring all prisoners have access to meaningful activity, and for time out of cell to be formalised, standardised and data to be published going forward.

The government’s response to the committee’s report was published on 30 January 2026.^[18] Lord Timpson said the government had accepted 10 of the committee’s recommendations, partially accepted 12 and rejected four. Accepted recommendations included the committee’s call for the government to set out what action it was taking to address complex health and wellbeing needs of women in prison.^[19] Lord Timpson referred to a range of evidence-based interventions and services already in place, including psychology services within all 12 women’s prisons to deliver therapeutic services. Rejected recommendations included the committee’s call for HMPPS to formalise, standardise and publish time out of cell data for prisons.^[20] The government said this would be challenging due to issues such as staff capacity. It argued a better metric to record would be time spent by prisoners on rehabilitative activities. The government said the HMPPS was working to improve data quality and recording in this space.

Publication of the report marked part one of the committee’s inquiry.^[21] The committee said it planned to take further oral evidence on how offenders were supported to rehabilitate and resettle in the community. A further report setting out long-term and structural changes to end the cycle of reoffending is expected to be published in due course.^[22]

3.3 Efficiency and resilience of the Probation Service

In February 2026, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) warned the Probation Service in England and Wales was being placed under “significant strain” and that this was “seriously impeding its ability to protect the public and reduce reoffending rates”.^[23] The PAC said the Probation Service’s performance had deteriorated since being brought under full public control in 2021, meeting just seven of its 27 performance targets in 2025. Three years earlier it was meeting half of its targets, the PAC noted.

The PAC stated probation staff had only adequately assessed risk of harm in 28% of cases in 2024, compared to 60% of cases in 2018/19.^[24] The number of offenders charged with a serious further offence while on probation had also increased by 55% in 2023/24 compared with 2021/22. The PAC said the service had been operating under severe strain, with demands on the service likely to increase further due to plans to free up capacity in prisons and courts.

The main reason for poor performance was due to staff shortages, the PAC said.^[25] There was a 21% vacancy rate in the probation officer grade in March 2025. Staff shortages had been exacerbated by what it described as HMPPS’s “serious underestimation” of staff requirements. It stated HMPPS’s “failure to update old data for years” had meant that HMPPS had only recently realised the service has been operating with around half of the sentence management staff required.

The HMPPS has acknowledged the current system is unsustainable and has set out a reform programme to address high workloads and poor performance by March 2027.^[26] This includes reducing workloads by introducing new digital tools, improving processes and making changes to the level of supervision for some offenders. The PAC warned such changes are unlikely to be sufficient and could cause further disruption and increase pressure on staff who were already significantly overworked.

The PAC said strong leadership in the MoJ and HMPPS was needed for the reform programme to succeed.^[27] It noted how some of the changes would place greater reliance on third sector or private sector organisations to meet the needs of lower risk offenders. The PAC stated the MoJ and HMPPS must ensure there was adequate funding for these organisations to help stop the cycle of reoffending.

The PAC said it was sceptical that HMPPS had a “real understanding” of the staffing levels required to improve performance.^[28] It recommended HMPPS set out when and how it expected to be able to provide clarity to staff on when their workloads would reduce to acceptable levels. Other PAC recommendations included for HMPPS to set out a timeline for when it expected to see meaningful improvements in Probation Service performance.^[29]

The MoJ said it agreed with the PAC’s recommendations.^[30] It stated HMPPS was committed to addressing high staff workloads and noted that the reform programme had the primary objective of reducing workloads by 25% by April 2027.^[31] Additionally, the government said it expected the Probation Service to demonstrate measurable and sustained improvement in performance over the current spending review period, concluding in March 2029.^[32] The government set out steps to be taken to achieve this, including the introduction of a revised performance framework and improvement plans based on a reduced number of priority measures.

4. Government announcements and stakeholder reaction

The government has acknowledged prison and probation services are in crisis.^[33] It has made various announcements aimed at addressing identified problems. This includes plans to keep the most dangerous offenders in prison, expand prison capacity and strengthen protections for victims and the public. With these criminal justice reforms, Lord Chancellor Alex Norris has said the government aims to build a justice system that is “firm, fair and that protects the public”.^[34]

Stakeholders have broadly supported the aim of easing pressure on prisons, however many have questioned whether the reforms can succeed without additional investment in probation and rehabilitation services. Several organisations have also argued that increasing prison capacity alone would not address the underlying causes of prison overcrowding and reoffending.

4.1 Building new prison places and changes to the automatic release point of some prisoners

The government aims to create 14,000 new prison places by 2031.^[35] Around 3,200 have already been built. The government said £110mn of funding had been fast-tracked to accelerate construction of these prison places, alongside investment to secure new land for prisons. Existing space within prisons such as unused office space and laundry rooms would also be converted into cells to deliver extra cell capacity. Additionally, the government said it was speeding up the deportation of foreign criminals in order to free up prison places, with over 11,700 having been removed since July 2024.

To reduce prison capacity, the government has changed sentencing rules so that most adults serving a standard determinate prison sentence will be automatically released on licence into the community earlier than they would otherwise have been.^[36] From 1 October 2026, prisoners convicted of less serious offences, who currently spend 40% or 50% of their sentence in prison, will be released after a third of their sentence.^[37] A second group, currently released after two thirds of their sentence, will leave after half. These changes are being made via the Sentencing Act 2026.^[38] The changes do not apply to all offenders. The government has said over 18,000 offenders serving life and extended prison sentences such as those convicted of murder and those deemed dangerous by a judge, are excluded from the reforms. In August 2026, the government announced further exclusions from the early release scheme.^[39] This includes those convicted of rape, manslaughter, unlawful killing offences, serious child sexual offences and grooming offences. In addition to the early release reforms, there will be a presumption against prison in favour of community sentences such as unpaid work and curfews for offences attracting sentences of 12 months or less.^[40] The government has also said it intends to legislate to “end” indeterminate imprison for public protection sentences by the end of this parliament.^[41]

Stakeholder reactions shared concerns but argued the case for different solutions. HM Inspectorate of Prisons has argued that increasing prison capacity would provide only a partial solution to overcrowding.^[42] Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said prison overcrowding was likely to remain an ongoing problem, despite the government’s measures aimed at easing short-term prison capacity pressures. The chief inspector said broader measures to reduce pressure on the prison estate were also needed. Prisons must become “places of purpose” where individuals are “properly prepared for release”, he said. Without this, more people could reoffend and be recalled to prison, reducing available space and adding further pressure to the prison system.

The Prison Reform Trust charity criticised the government’s focus on creating more prison places, arguing that greater emphasis should be placed on rehabilitation and reducing demand for custody instead.^[43] Chief Executive Pia Sinha accused the government of “trading rehabilitation for the warehousing of prisoners”. She argued that more prison places alone would not create a safer, more effective justice system. Instead, she called on the government to do more to “reduce unnecessary imprisonment, improve community alternatives and tackle the drivers of reoffending”.

Similarly, penal reform charity the Howard League for Penal Reform argued that increasing prison places was unlikely to provide a lasting solution without wider reforms to the criminal justice system.^[44] Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the penal reform charity, argued the government’s prison-building programme would be costly but unlikely to provide a long-term solution to prison overcrowding. She called for greater emphasis on sentencing reform, as well as investment in probation, communities, education, mental health and drugs support.

4.2 Improving monitoring of offenders released from prison

The government announced that a record £700mn would be invested in probation services by 2028/29.^[45] It said this funding would support the recruitment of 1,300 new probation officers in 2026, building on the 2,300 officers recruited over the previous two years. The investment would also be used to expand the use of electronic tagging of offenders released from prison. Under the measures announced, rape and certain child sex offenders would be subject to enhanced probation supervision when leaving prison, including GPS monitoring for a period of 12 months. In addition, the government said it would expand other public protection measures, including the use of random drug testing and restrictions on activities such as driving, going to pubs and attending certain events such as football matches.

Reaction focused on the levels of investment and concerns around overwhelming the existing service. HM Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) welcomed the direction of the government’s reforms but cautioned that their success would depend on sufficient investment in probation capacity.^[46] Speaking in January 2026, HMIP was broadly supportive of the Sentencing Act 2026 and described the reforms as an opportunity to transform the justice system. It welcomed the government’s commitment to invest in probation, expand electronic monitoring and introduce measures intended to free up probation staff time. However, the inspectorate said challenges remained in aligning probation resources with the additional demands created by the reforms. It warned that, without sufficient investment and careful implementation, there was a risk of undermining public confidence in probation and “setting the service up to fail”. Overall, HMIP’s position was supportive of the direction of reform but emphasised that successful delivery would depend on the right investment being made in the service in the short to medium term.

Probation officers’ union NAPO was more critical, arguing the reforms risked placing additional strain on an already overstretched probation service.^[47] The union said changes to early-release rules for prisoners designed to ease prison capacity pressure “[failed] to appreciate the huge workload issues being faced by [probation staff]”. The union questioned whether the government understood that the Probation Service was “ill-equipped to take on the additional work” required by the early releases. Ian Lawrence, NAPO general secretary, argued the stated aim of the early-release measures to create more prison places missed the wider point about what happens when convicted criminals are released early. He argued a properly resourced Probation Service was crucial to managing offenders in the community.

4.3 Improving support for victims

The government said it would introduce enhanced support for victims, including increased and improved engagement with all those affected.^[48] It stated this would be supported by a £18.9mn “boost” in funding for victim support services, intended to provide additional local frontline services offering trauma-focused assistance. This funding would be in addition to investment provided over the next three years to enable charities and other organisations to deliver victims services such as counselling and advice on attending court. The government also said a dedicated victim helpline would be established by October 2026 to provide guidance and support to those affected by the reforms.

Stakeholder reaction focused on calls for a whole-system approach to reform. Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales Claire Waxman described mounting pressures across prisons, probation, policing, courts and victim services as having “the hallmarks of a national emergency”.^[49] The commissioner said victims had been let down by poor communication within the justice system, with many receiving little clarity about what the early prisoner release changes could mean for them, their safety or their future for example.^[50] The commissioner stated that resolving prison pressures alone would not solve the wider challenges facing victims and the justice system. Instead, she argued meaningful reform needed to include tackling the court backlog, improving the experiences of victims waiting for justice, and ensuring criminal justice reform is given the same strategic priority as other public service reforms.^[51]

5. Read more

5.1 Statistics

• HM Government, ‘Justice in numbers’, updated 20 August 2026
• Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service, ‘HM Prison and Probation Service workforce statistics’, updated 20 August 2026
• Ministry of Justice, ‘Prison and probation performance statistics’, updated 30 July 2026
• Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service, ‘Offender management statistics quarterly: January to March 2026’, 30 July 2026
• Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service, ‘HMPPS annual digest 2025 to 2026’, 30 July 2026

5.2 Reports

• HM Inspectorate of Prisons, ‘HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales: Annual report 2025–26’, 7 July 2026, HC 432 of session 2026–27
• HM Inspectorate of Probation, ‘Annual report 2026’, 20 July 2026
• National Audit Office, ‘Building an effective and resilient Probation Service’, 24 October 2025, HC 1354 of session 2024–26

5.3 Library briefings for business

• House of Lords Library, ‘Homelessness and rough sleeping among released prisoners’, 13 July 2026; and QSD on ‘Early release prisoners: Preventing homelessness and rough sleeping’, HL Hansard, 16 July 2026, cols 734–51
• House of Lords Library, ‘Better prisons, less crime’: Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee report’, 5 February 2026; and Debate on ‘Better prisons: Less crime (Justice and Home Affairs Committee Report)’, HL Hansard, 12 February 2026, cols 317–63
• House of Lords Library, ‘Government plans to ease prison capacity pressure and manage the needs of vulnerable prisoners’, 9 September 2024; and Debate on ‘Prison capacities’, HL Hansard, 12 September 2024, cols 1702–16
• House of Lords Library, ‘Addressing prison capacity pressure’, 4 September 2024

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