The documents viewed by the BBC show have a shortage of about 10,000 probation employees to manage criminals serving sentences in the community.
Probation employees oversee criminals after their release from jail, and investigate that they follow their release conditions such as curfew, not taking drugs, and wearing tags that can restrict their movement. They also protect the public by assessing the risk of reworning.
The BBC reveals a range of full -time employees dealing with sentence management from a series of leaked documents.
In response, the Ministry of Justice (Moj) said that he had inherited a probation service “under” under immense pressure “, and recruited 1,000 trainee officers last year.
According to a government study compiled last year, some 17,170 full -time employees were required to deal with syntax in September 2023.
This was the government before releasing tens of thousands of criminals to make more spaces in congested jails – to do even more work for probation service.
According to a review of a sentence management activity by His Majesty’s Jail and Probation Service (HMPS), there are only 7,236 employees in this specific role – about 10,000 less than the requirement.
The BBC understands that the findings were compiled through surveys, analysis of the tests, and monitoring of how employees work on a daily basis.
In response to the findings of the report, a probation officer told the BBC: “These jobs are probation and butter, and the situation in terms of staffing is quite poor, especially at a time when the pressure on us is very high.
“This is when some of us are being told that it is our fault that we are not enough and we need our game, but in reality the charge sky is high.”
The probation staff says that the initial release scheme known as SDS40 has dramatically increased its charge. Between 10 September 2024 and the end of March this year, 26,456 people were released under the plan.
Employees say that failing to monitor the ongoing prisoners may increase to join again and other people may move away from the official radar, which means they are completely insecure.
In February this year, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood promised to recruit 1,300 probation officers by April 2026.
At that time, the Moj said that the authorities were “asked to do too much for a very long time” and “cumbersome with high charge” – meaning that they were unable to pay sufficient attention to the greatest risk -taking criminals.
In some cases, it missed the “warning signs”, where criminals commit serious crimes like murder.
Probation Employees of criminals are looking at – was 241,540 at the end of March 2025 – an increase of 9% in a decade. There may be several appointments of employees with each criminal in a week.
Another probation officer said, “Somebody is about to get serious injuries because when you get stressed and overwork you cannot find everything right – this is just human nature – and that’s why they need thousands and employees because it could be otherwise dangerous,” said another probation officer.
“They [ministers] It is trying to give a feeling that all this is fine and they are pumping in employees, but they are nowhere close to filling the gap. And it can take a year or more to train someone properly. ,
Last year’s annual report from HM Inspector of Probation cited “Chronic Under-Staffing” and “Knoc-on Impact” on the workload, which was as major issues of anxiety.
In March 2025, there were 21,022 full -time probation employees in England and Wales – an increase of 610 in the previous year. Sentence management employees are part of the wider corket of probation employees.
A probation officer described the charge as a “non-stop”, and until “you can’t face” until you grow, “it’s just heavy.”
Many recommendations made in review of independent sentence earlier this year are expected to be placed before Parliament next month. They are being managed to more criminals in the community rather than service to prison time. This will again increase probation charge.
In response to the conclusions, Moj told the BBC that the pressure on the probation service has “put a huge burden on our hardworking employees”.
A spokesman said that he had recently announced an increase of £ 700m in funding by 2028, as well as recruiting more trainee probation officers.
He said, “We are also investing in new technology that reduces the administrative burden of employees on time to focus on working with criminals and protecting the public.”
