We asked MoJ whether it accepted responsibility for the poor performance of the service following unification. MoJ told us that it had started to see improvements in performance, particularly in relation to risk assessment and management. It said that this followed steps it had taken such as updating its performance system and introducing ministerial oversight of probation performance. However, we had to ask a second time before MoJ accepted that it was responsible for the service’s performance.20 Impact of probation performance on offender outcomes