Community supervision and support in Northern Ireland is handled by a single organisation – here’s how it works.
The Probation Board for Northern Ireland (PBNI) is a separate organisation from the Probation Service in England & Wales and from criminal justice social work in Scotland, though it does a similar job: supervising community sentences, supporting people on licence after release from prison, and preparing reports for the courts.
Sentences PBNI supervises. This includes community-based orders set by the courts, as well as supervising people released from custody on licence, making sure conditions are being met and offering support with things like accommodation, benefits, and continuing any treatment started inside.
Victim Information Schemes. PBNI also runs several schemes to keep victims informed as a case progresses – see our Victims of Crime page for details.
Getting in touch. If someone is being supervised by PBNI and you have questions – as a family member, or as the person being supervised – their local PBNI office is the first point of contact.
England & Wales has a dedicated Probation Service, and Scotland uses criminal justice social work through local councils. See our Probation section, or Scotland’s Criminal Justice Social Work page, for those systems.