National Offender Management Service (NOMS)

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) was created in 2004. It brings together the prison and probation services under one umbrella and is responsible for both the punishment of offenders, whether in prison or the community, and reducing re-offending. It has the following aims:

  • Protect the public
  • Reduce re-offending
  • Punish offenders
  • Rehabilitate offenders
  • Ensure victims feel justice has been done

NOMS brings an integrated approach to the custodial and non-custodial aspects of a sentence. Its headquarters are within the new Ministry of Justice, which was set up when the Home divided into two parts. It carries out its work through nine regional areas in England, each led by a Regional Offender Manager, and throughout Wales, led by a Director of Offender Management. Each area is responsible for:

  • commissioning services for their region
  • developing a regional reducing re-offending delivery plan
  • co-ordinating regional and local partnerships

The old case management and offender assessment systems in public prisons and probation were regarded as being no longer fit for purpose. A programme to improve the information available to staff is being developed and Her Majesty’s Prison Service is to receive a new system called C-NOMIS, which will replace the existing case management system (LIDS). This new comprehensive information management database is intended to underpin all stages of offender management. Following trials in three public sector prisons it hoped that the system will bring about significant efficiencies when rolled out across the whole service.

Through C-NOMIS and increased communication throughout the criminal justice system NOMS will help to deliver punishments and reparation and co-ordinate rehabilitative, health, educational, employment and housing opportunities for offenders to reduce re-offending. Consequently, it seeks to bridge the divide between custody and community and by 2010 aims to have made a significant reduction in re-offending rates by introducing end-to-end offender management. The NOMS Chief Executive Helen Edwards summarised this by saying:

"The main purpose behind NOMS is to introduce serious and consistent offender management, joining up our efforts to reduce re-offending in custody with our efforts to reduce re-offending in the community."