November 15, 2005: Gagging Chief Officers of Probation?

A leaked letter from National Probation Service Director Roger Hill to Chief Officers of Probation appears to suggest that they are forbidden to lobby against the proposals to restructure the Service. This compares with the way Chief Police Officers were encouraged to lobby for 90 days detention to deal with terrorism. The letter was dated November 7, when chief police officers were lobbying MPs over anti-terror measures, backed by the home secretary.

In the letter, which has been reported by the BBC and the Guardian, Mr Hill writes that he aims to:

“formally to remind you of your responsibilities in your roles as statutory office holders, ministerial appointees and civil servants.”

"You should not engage in lobbying activity, you must not promulgate misinformation (eg contestability is privatisation) and you should avoid any action that might suggest that you are encouraging staff to lobby against government policy."

Though trades unions are entitled to respond to appropriate issues as they wish, writes Mr Hill, chief officers as leaders have particular responsibilities:

"The legitimate way to express your views is by responding to the consultation and I continue to expect and encourage you to do that."

Shadow home secretary David Davis was quoted by the BBC as stating that:

"On the one hand they want to stop chief probation officers expressing their honest opinions and on the other they encourage chief constables to try to influence the outcome of a parliamentary debate in their favour. They can't have it both ways."

The assistant general secretary of probation union Napo, Harry Fletcher, was reported in the Guardian stating that:

&"It's gross hypocrisy in the week that Charles Clarke was telling police officers to lobby at the same time his emissary was telling probation officers not to do so."