What the Probation Service does with the information it holds

The Probation Service can share the personal information it holds about you with some other organisations and some victims of crime. This can include:

• the Parole Board (if you left prison on probation)

• other probation trusts - for example, if you move to a new area

• the victim of a serious offence, if the victim asks the Probation Service to keep them informed

Information can also be given to other organisations - like health and social services.

If you’re convicted of a violent or sexual crime

If you’re convicted of a violent or sexual crime and are released, you may be placed under Multi-Agency Protection Arrangements (MAPPA).

These bring together police, probation and prison services to supervise (manage) people when in the community.

If you’re released under MAPPA, information about you may be shared across different organisations like:

• children’s services

• adult social care services

• local education services

• health trusts and authorities

• Jobcentre Plus

What happens if you break the terms of your probation

If you are on probation you must follow strict rules - like attending regular meetings with an offender manager. If you break any rules, you may have to return to court or be sent back to prison. Find out what happens if you break the terms of your probation.

Types of rules you must follow while on probation

If you have a community sentence, or are released from prison under licence or parole, there are rules you must follow.

These could include having to:

• go on a course to help you stop committing crime

• get treatment for an addiction you may have - like drugs

• stay in your home between certain hours

If you have been given a community sentence

If you commit another crime you could be sent to prison

If you break the rules of your community sentence - like not attending meetings or committing another crime - you may either:

• receive a warning

• be taken back to court

If you do something serious, like commit another crime, you could go straight to court. You may not just get a fine or a warning - you could:

• get a harder sentence

• get more rules to follow on probation

• be sent to prison

If you’re on licence or parole from prison

If you’re on licence or parole from prison when you break the terms of your probation, you can be ‘recalled’. This means you are sent back to prison.

How you find out you are being recalled

The offender manager will either:

• write to you stating you’re being recalled (after getting a final warning)

• arrange for you to be arrested by the police because you have done something (like commit a serious crime), or are a risk to the public

What happens when you go back to prison

When you go back to prison, you get a copy of a report explaining why you have been sent back. You can also see a copy of a report your offender manager has written about you.

Asking to be released again - ‘making representations’

You have the right to ask the Parole Board to release you again - this is called making representations.

You sign a form saying whether or not you want to do this.

You can make representations:

• yourself

• ask a friend or family member to do it

• get a legal adviser to do it

You tell the Parole Board why you think it’s safe for you to be released back into the community. This must be done within two weeks of being told the reasons you were recalled to prison.

The Parole Board looks at your case and decides whether or not you can be released.

Prison staff can explain the process in more detail.