September 29 2004: New Funding for Probation and Prisons

Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced new funding for prisons and probation in England and Wales. The new funding is part of an 8.4% increase - around £320 million - in spending on the Prison and Probation Services next year.

This sum adds to the significant funds already committed to prison and probation. It includes the recruitment of 1650 frontline staff and 150 support staff - to be recruited across all 42 probation areas over the next two years. It will bring the total number of probation staff to 21,000, and continues the year-on-year increases in new probation staff.

According to the Home Office, the aim is to ensure that “both custody and community punishments are modern and can address the needs of society and offenders by reducing re-offending and cutting crime”.

The Home Secretary outlined the policy thus:

"Providing modern and effective prisons is central to this Government's objective of reducing re-offending, protecting the public and sending the right signal to those for whom punishment in the community has failed to redeem their behaviour. I am committed to increasing places in prisons and probation to ensure that there is a prison place for all those serious and persistent offenders who need it and an effective community alternative for less serious offenders."

Although England and Wales already have proportionally the greatest number of prisoners per head of population in Western Europe, the current plan is to further increase prison capacity, taking the number of new prison places to over three-and-a-half thousand. Mr Blunkett stated that around £100 million of money in 2005-06 will pay for the start of a programme creating 1,300 new prison places. This is in addition to 2,400 new places due to be added to capacity over the next 18 months from the existing expansion programme.