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News

News Archives: Index

October 7, 2010: Probation Set For Industrial Action

October 5, 2010: Turning Prisoners Into Taxpayers

October 4, 2010: Murder Changes Now In Force

September 20, 2010: Probation Programmes Face Cuts

August 24, 2010: Victorian Poor Law Records Online

August 10, 2010: Justice Job Cuts

July 28, 2010: Prison Violence Growing

July 22, 2010: Police Numbers: Latest Figures

July 22, 2010: New Jurisdiction Rules

July 16, 2010: CCJS On Prison And Probation Spending Under Labour

July 15, 2010: Latest Statistics On Violent And Sexual Crime

July 15, 2010: Latest National Crime Figures

July 15, 2010: New Chief Prisons Inspector

July 14, 2010: Hard Times Ahead For Prisons: Anne Owers

July 14, 2010: Prison Does Not Work: Ken Clarke

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform: Sentencing and Rehabilitation

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform Priorities

July 12, 2010: What Price Public Protection, Asks Probation Chief Inspector

July 12, 2010: NOMS has failed, says Napo

July 10, 2010: IPCC To Investigate Death of Raoul Moat

July 9, 2010: Women In Prison: New Report

July 9, 2009: Unjust Deserts: Imprisonment for Public Protection

July 8, 2010: Police Search Powers Change

July 7, 2010: Make 'Legal High' Illegal, Says ACMD

July 2, 2010: Failing Children In Prison

July 2, 2010: Police Buried Under a Blizzard of Guidance: HMIC

July 1, 2010: Freedom To Change The Law?

June 30, 2010: A New Outlook On Penal Reform?

June 30, 2010: Revolving Door Of Offending Must Stop, Says Clarke

June 30, 2010: Ken Clarke: Speech on Criminal Justice Reform

June 29, 2010: No More Police Targets

June 26, 2010: Family Intervention Projects Questioned

June 25, 2010: Cutting Criminal Justice

June 24, 2010: Napo on Sex Offenders Report

June 23, 2010: Closing Courts: The Cuts Begin

June 23, 2010: Strategy To Tackle Gangs

June 15, 2010: Courts and Mentally Disordered Offenders

June 8, 2010: Working With Muslims in Prison

June 1, 2010: Your Chance To Nominate a QC

August 1, 2004: Government Climbdown a "Victory for Common Sense" says Napo

The government has pulled back from an imminent move to a regionally based probation service, following wide resistance to from probation union Napo and many probation boards. They consistently opposed the moves to radically restructure the Probation Service by splitting it into two parts, offender management and interventions, in order to create an artificial purchaser/provider split. These proposals involved dismantling the current Service based on 42 Probation Areas, and transferring the management of the offender management part of the Service to ten Regional Boards and moving the interventions work to a new national employer.

Judy McKnight, Napo General Secretary, welcomed a “victory for common sense” which showed that the Government had learned from the near unanimous opposition to the original restructuring plans for the Probation. She commented:

"Napo has consistently supported the need for strategies that reduce prison numbers and reduce reoffending. The wholesale reorganisation of the Probation Service in order to expose it to the threat of privatisation, was never the way to achieve that vision."

“Napo believes that the continuation of an integrated Probation Service, working in partnership with local communities, properly resourced, and free from the threat of privatisation, should be the lynch pin for the future delivery of an effective community focused justice system.">

Martin Narey, Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service said:

“I concluded, and Ministers agreed, that designing a new organisation at this pace could severely impact on performance in the Probation Service.” 

He  also noted that the current interim model did not signal a change of direction and that he plans to push ahead with ‘contestability’ – seen be some to effectively mean a degree of privatization of probation. In Narey’s own words, “we can consider giving the private and not-for-profit sector an opportunity, working for the Probation Board, to take over all the functions of a probation area”.

However, his statement did not rule out the threat of further restructuring in future.