Consultations
Inspection framework and programmes
Under the Police and Criminal Justice Act 2006 we consult each year on our inspection framework and programmes. We think it right to consult not just with ministers and other inspectorates (as the Act requires) but also with those we inspect and other interested parties.
2024 – Open
Thematic and Research Consultation 2025 – 2026 (PDF, 183 kB)
This consultation will be open until Friday 22 November 2024.
2024 – Open
A consultation on standards and ratings for a national inspection of the Probation Service.
View the consultation document here. (PDF, 357 kB)
This consultation will be open until 11:59pm on Sunday 10 November 2024.
2024 – Closed
Our consultation on Probation Reset.
View the consultation document – Probation reset consultation August 2024 (Document, 135 kB)
This survey is now closed. We are reviewing all the feedback we have received and will be publishing our response, along with our revised standards, as soon as possible.
2024 – Closed
Our consultation on the inspection of approved premises.
View the consultation document – Consultation on the inspection of Approved Premises (PDF, 461 kB)
This consultation closed on 21 July 2024. We will be publishing our response shortly.
2023 – Closed
Our consultation on the inspection of youth justice services ran from 06 December 2023 to 28 January 2024.
View the consultation document: Consultation on the inspection of youth justice services (PDF, 723 kB)
We would like to thank all those involved in this wide-ranging consultation for their contributions and support.
We will be publishing our response in the coming months, once our initial pilot activity has been completed.
2023 – Closed
Our consultation on our thematic inspection and research programmes for 2024/2025 closed on 06 December 2023.
View the letter: Consultation letter – HM Inspectorate of Probation thematic and research consultation 2024/2025 (PDF, 173 kB)
View the response: Response to consultation on HM Inspectorate of Probation’s thematic inspection and research programmes for 2024/2025 (PDF, 195 kB)
2022 – Closed
Our consultation on probation inspection standards in 2023/2024 closed on 21 August 2022.
View the letter: Consultation on probation standards (PDF, 456 kB)
View the response: Response to consultation on HM Inspectorate of Probation’s proposed adult standards for the 2023-2024 inspection programme (PDF, 198 kB)
2022 – Closed
Our statutory consultation on our inspection framework and programmes for 2022/2023 closed on Tuesday 26 April 2022.
View the letter: Consultation on our inspection framework and programmes 2022/2023 (PDF, 338 kB)
View the response: Response to the consultation on HM Inspectorate of Probation’s inspection framework and programmes for 2022-2023 (PDF, 249 kB)
2021 – Closed
Part two of our consultation on the future of adult inspections closed on Monday 31 May 2021.
View the proposals, which incorporates feedback from part one of the consultation: Consultation on the future of adult inspections (part two) (PDF, 493 kB)
View the response: Response to the consultation on the future of probation inspections (part two) (PDF, 304 kB)
2021 – Closed
Our statutory consultation for 2021/2022 closed on Friday 30 April 2021.
View the letter: HM Inspectorate of Probation statutory consultation 2021 (PDF, 273 kB)
View the response: Response to the consultation on HM Inspectorate of Probation’s inspection framework and programmes for 2021-2022. (PDF, 290 kB)
2020 – Closed
Part one of our consultation on the future of adult inspections closed on Sunday 30 August 2020.
View the proposals: Consultation on the future of adult inspections (part one) (PDF)
2020 – Closed
Our statutory consultation for 2020/2021 closed on Friday 29 May 2020.
View the letter: HM Inspectorate of Probation statutory consultation 2020 (PDF, 283 kB)
View the response: Response to the consultation on HM Inspectorate of Probation’s inspection framework and programmes for 2020-2022 (PDF, 363 kB)
Response to the consultation on HM Inspectorate of Probation’s inspection framework and programmes for 2019-20
Response to the consultation of HM Inspectorate of Probation’s inspection framework and programmes for 2018/2019
Response to the consultation on HM Inspectorate of Probation’s inspection framework and programmes for 2016/2017
HM Inspectorate of Probation quality assurance of Serious Further Offence (SFO) reviews
2021 – Closed
Our Serious Further Offence reviews consultation (PDF, 261 kB) closed on Friday 05 March 2021.
Our response will be published soon.
Standards and ratings
In 2018, we launched a new set of standards, ratings and methodology. Overall, they have been performing well, but we want to continue to improve the way we inspect local services to support improvements in practice. We have kept our methodology under review and want to seek views on particular areas such as the inspection of out of court disposals and resettlement services for children leaving custody.
Probation Services
Closed:
Consultation on inspection of probation providers
We asked your views on the changes that we are proposing to our domain one and three standards, the way that we will inspect against these standards and the schedule for doing so throughout 2019/2020 and 2020/2021.
Response to the consultation on standards and ratings for inspecting probation services
2018: Response to the consultation on standards and ratings for inspecting probation services
Youth Services
21 September 2020
Response to the consultation on standards and ratings for inspection of youth offending services
2020 – Closed
Consultation on standards for inspecting youth offending services (PDF, 382 kB)
Our consultation closed on Sunday 07 June 2020.
View our response: Response to the consultation on standards and ratings for inspection of youth offending services (PDF, 288 kB)
Closed:
From 8 November 2017 to 8 December 2017, we ran a consultation on our standards and ratings for inspecting probation and youth offending services. We received 25 responses to the probation consultation and 42 responses to the youth consultation. The reports below summarise the responses and how we are taking them forward. We will continue to be transparent in the way we work, and will in due course publish the final versions of the 2018/19 standards frameworks, alongside documentation covering the inspection processes, methodologies and ratings.
Our response to consultation on probation standards and ratings (Feb 18) (PDF, 455 kB)
Our response to consultation on youth offending standards and ratings (Feb 18) (PDF, 523 kB)
Below are the initial consultation documents:
HMI Probation consultation on probation standards and ratings_November 2017_ (PDF, 1 MB)
HMI Probation consultation on youth offending standards and ratings_November 2017_ (PDF, 1 MB)
