Vic Donaldson

Probation Board for Northern Ireland

The Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) is a Non-Departmental Public body (NDPB) which was created in 1982 by the Probation Board (NI) Order 1982. It is a key organisation within the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice system. PBNI seeks to change lives for safer communities through its work in risk assessing and managing offenders and helping rehabilitate and resettle them. It is the organisation responsible for managing and supervising the largest number of offenders in the community. At the core of all the work we undertake, probation is about reducing the risk of people becoming victims of crime and preventing people becoming victims of crime PBNI works at every stage of the criminal justice process; at court, in custody and in the community and with victims of crime. It also leads the multi-agency arrangements to manage certain violent and sexual offenders. It is part of the Reducing Offending in Partnership project which tackles the most prolific offenders in NI. It is a designated body on the Policing and Community Safety Partnerships, and is committed to working in every local community in Northern Ireland. PBNI provide around 10,000 reports for courts, parole commissioners and others every year, and at any given time supervise approximately 4,500 offenders. These offenders are supervised in relation to compliance against a wide variety of court orders, including probation orders; custody probation orders; combination orders; and community service orders. PBNI also supervise offenders released on licence from prisons. PBNI delivers a wide range of challenging programmes tackling offending behaviour including specific programmes for those who perpetrate domestic violence and sexual offences, violent offending, as well as programmes to address offending behaviour more generally. The PBNI also has a forensic psychology unit, and a Victim Information Unit.