The Government have announced the bailout today, which would cost £170 million.

The government have announced they are scrapping private probation contracts two years. The the bailout will cost £170 million, following the calamitous reforms introduced by former Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.

Disregarding warnings from the Ministry of Justice, Grayling reformed the probation sector in 2014 by breaking up probation trusts. He brought in a public service to deal with high risk offenders and 21 community rehabilitation companies, which were privately run, to manage low-risk offenders.

Today’s bailout of £170 million is on top of an extra £342million to the CRCs. That makes the cost to the taxpayer over £500million.

Ian Lawrence General Secretary of Napo, the trade union that represents probation staff, told Left Foot Forward:

We think this is a smoke and mirrors exercise by the minister. The government have effectively ignored the compelling evidence that shows their transform and rehabilitation reforms have been a failure. Instead of recognising this and bring back work to the public sector they have stepped up their campaign to marketise the service

Supposed to run until 2022 this agreement would be replaced in 2020, with new plans brought in under the new Justice Secretary David Gauke’s plans. The changes could include seeing these 21Community Rehabilitation Companies being reduced to 11. Even though there have been major problems with how provision has been run by private companies, under these new plans the government will still give private companies the opportunity to bid on the contracts.

Lawrence said: “Napo is sceptical and remain unconvinced about whether this latest bail out will work. It is unbelievable that the government’s initial response to the Justice Committee’s thorough inquiry into this catastrophe is to give private companies a bigger slice of the pie while vital issues such as the unworkable split of the service, inadequate Through the Gate Services, and poor staff morale remain unaddressed.

“It is clear they are wedded to a failed and unworkable ideology, and cannot accept the undeniable fact that justice and public safety cannot be subject to the rule of supply and demand.”

Labour shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon also criticised the plans: “This announcement is further evidence that the Conservatives’ decision to outsource whole swathes of probation to the private sector has created an unprecedented crisis in the system. This ideological experiment has been a costly failure, just as Labour warned it would be. He attacked the government for recommitting to “a privately-run probation service” and attacked them for “delaying this announcement until parliament closed for the summer.

This comes after the Justice Committee said last months the reforms under previous Justice Secretary Chris Grayling were a “mess”

UNISON, the public sector union, also criticised the plans as “lacklustre” and “ill thought out”.

UNISON national officer for probation Ben Priestley said:

“Probation must be put back together, returned to public ownership and this privatisation nightmare brought to an end.”

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