The West Yorkshire Area
The National Probation Service for England and Wales (NPS) is made up of forty-two probation areas, which are co-terminous with Police and Local Authority boundaries. West Yorkshire is the fourth largest probation area, serving a population of around 2.2 million and covering around 780 square miles.
At any one time, West Yorkshire Probation is supervising around 12,000 cases, 7,300 offenders in the community and 4,600 in custody and on licence. Each year approximately 11,000 pre-sentence reports are produced for courts to assist them to pass sentence on offenders. West Yorkshire Probation employs almost 1,200 staff and in 2008/9 had an annual budget of £42 million. We have staff based in prisons, hostels, Magistrates' and Crown Courts.
The West Yorkshire area comprises a number of diverse communities, from the major conurbations of Leeds and Bradford to rural villages; there is a wide range of social and ethnic backgrounds (with a total minority ethnic population of 11.37%).
West Yorkshire is celebrated for its textiles, and the wealth of the Victorian era can still be seen in the architecture of towns such as Halifax and Huddersfield. Country towns include Otley (birthplace of Thomas Chippendale), Ilkely and Wetherby, and little Pennine towns such as Hebden Bridge, Marsden, and Haworth, home of the Brontes.
There is a vibrant city feel to modern centres such as Leeds and Bradford, with Leeds now firmly established as the UK's second commercial centre after London. Local attractions include the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television and Salts Mill in Bradford, and the Royal Armouries, Opera North and the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.
The head office of West Yorkshire Probation is in Wakefield, the former county town of West Yorkshire, where West Yorkshire Police headquarters are also situated.
