Ministry of Justice · Offender management statistics quarterly: probation
Probation caseload
258,332people
Probation caseload were 258,332 people at 31 March 2026, up 6.6% (15,935) from 242,397 at 31 March 2025.
▲ 6.6% · +15,935 against March 2025 (year on year)
- Ministry of Justice snapshot
- March 2026
- published 30 July 2026
- Table 6.6a
- row “Table 6.6a: Males and Females / All supervision”
- column “31 March2026(Break in series) [note 49]”
- cell value 258332
March 2025 to March 2026
What this measures
The number of people supervised by the Probation Service in England and Wales at the end of the quarter, under court orders or pre- and post-release supervision, each person counted once.
What this doesn’t measure
People in prison, or the number of orders (a person under several orders is counted once, so totals are less than the sum of their parts).
Important caveat
Each person is counted once in each total even if they are subject to several types of supervision, so totals are less than the sum of their parts. Following the move to a new data pipeline, processing improvements were applied from the January to March 2026 reporting period and not retrospectively; the Ministry of Justice says the figures now give a more complete picture of the caseload and marks 31 March 2026 as a break in series, so comparisons with earlier quarters should be made with caution.
When the way this was measured changed
A series can move because the thing being measured changed, or because the way of measuring it changed. Each change below is marked on the chart, and says what the figures meant on either side of it.
March 2026 · methodology change
- Before
- Caseload as processed before the 2026 improvements.
- After
- Caseload after processing improvements, which the Ministry of Justice says give a more complete picture.
Processing improvements applied from the January to March 2026 reporting period, not retrospectively; the Ministry of Justice says the figures now give a more complete picture of the caseload.
Revision history
No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.
Source
- Publisher
- Ministry of Justice
- Publication
- Offender management statistics quarterly: probation
- Release
- January to March 2026, published 30 July 2026
- Source file
- probation-Jan-to-Mar-2026.ods
- File SHA-256
- 3642cdf66ade4df18af009e42fb282343430a78ce3b06e2fa5b80726cffc864e
- Retrieved
- 2 September 2026
- Sheet
- 6_6_Caseload
- Table
- Table 6.6a
- Row
- Table 6.6a: Males and Females / All supervision
- Column
- 31 March2026(Break in series) [note 49]
- Cell value
- 258332
- Geography
- England and Wales
- Unit
- people
- API
- /api/metrics/probation_caseload · /series · /vintages
Government periods
Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.
- Release
- January to March 2026 · publication page
- Last updated
- 30 July 2026
- Next release expected
- October 2026 (estimated from the usual cadence)