30 April - Response to claims in the
media re LPT and Biometric Reporting
The suggestion that London Probation Trust is
looking to replace face-to-face contact by the use of new
technology is incorrect.
For clarity, there is no possibility that the use of biometric
technology will replace our statutory responsibility to provide
face-to-face meetings with offenders.
London Probation Trust is commencing a research project which will
explore the potential use of biometric technology within
probation.
The project will look at the use of biometric machines to establish
whether this provides probation staff with the flexibility to spend
more time with offenders who are of a higher-risk or need more
in-depth support.
Offenders involved in the research will continue to receive an
appropriate level of face-to-face contact as per licence
conditions.
Operational staff and offender representatives have been part of
the project board overseeing this project; Union representatives
have been regularly consulted. As part of the research, we will be
looking at a number of issues including compliance, diversity and
accessibility concerns which have already been raised in
discussions with staff and stakeholders.
London Probation Trust is conscious of the need to improve
frontline probation work. We are recruiting more Probation Officers
and more money than ever in the frontline. This research project is
designed to find ways of increasing the amount of face-to-face time
spent with those who need most support and better use of Probation
Officers’ time in appointments.
The project will be led and undertaken by independent researchers.
It is expected to run for up to a year, enabling evidence-based
conclusions to be reached on the impact of biometric technology
before any decisions are taken about its use within the
Trust.
Heather Munro, Chief Executive of London Probation Trust
said:
“London Probation Trust intends to research biometric reporting of
offenders to support our key aims of protecting the public and
reducing reoffending.
“We believe reducing the bureaucracy Probation Officers have to
deal with, in order to increase the time spent in face-to-face
meetings, is an important step.
“We are looking at various ways of doing this, from increasing the
number of Probation Officers to investigating the use of technology
to improve our ability to monitor offenders; we want to use the
time of professional practitioners where it is most needed. ”