B&B gay comments

In 2010, the then shadow home secretary, Grayling, was forced to apologise after a recording obtained by the Observer captured him saying that people who ran bed and breakfasts in their homes should have the right to turn away gay couples on the basis that “we need to allow people to have their own consciences”. The remarks prompted a furious response from gay groups and other parties and David Cameron came under pressure to sack him to prove that the Conservatives did not tolerate prejudice.

Banning books for prisoners

As justice secretary, Grayling notoriously introduced a ban on prisoners receiving books from friends or relatives, and limited the number of books each prisoner was able to have in a cell. It was introduced as part of a crackdown on what ministers described as prisoners’ “perks and privileges”. High-profile opponents included the Howard League for Penal Reform, which gained support from leading authors, including the poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, David Hare, Salman Rushdie and Jeffrey Archer. A high court ruling in December 2015 found that the measure was unlawful and it was subsequently scrapped.

Seaborne Freight

Grayling was widely mocked after it emerged that he had awarded Seaborne Freight a no-deal Brexit ferry contract despite the company not owning any ships and having never previously operated a ferry service. The contract was cancelled earlier this month by the Department for Transport after it said that an Irish shipping firm, Arklow Shipping, that had been backing the deal pulled out. To add to the confusion Arklow Shipping later denied it ever had a stake in the venture. The government has agreed a new £33m contract with Eurotunnel in order to settle a legal action.

Rail timetable chaos

Grayling was transport secretary when a change to rail timetables caused chaos, leading to the cancellation of thousands of services. More than one in 10 Northern and Thameslink trains were cancelled after the introduction of the new timetables on 20 May last year. In an interim report into the debacle, the Office of Road and Rail singled out the train operators Govia Thameslink Railway and Northern, Network Rail and the Department for Transport (DfT) for criticism, saying their mistakes had led to the collapse of services. The rail regulator criticised the DfT for failing to question the industry’s assurances about the risk of disruption.

Part-privatisation of probation contracts

The supervision of all offenders in the community is to be undertaken by the state in a major renationalisation of the probation sector, five years after Chris Grayling introduced a widely derided programme of privatisation while justice secretary. Under his disastrous shake-up in 2014, the probation sector was separated into a public sector organisation managing high-risk criminals and 21 private companies responsible for the supervision of 150,000 low- to medium-risk offenders.

Following years of damning criticism from MPs, inspectorates and former probation officers, the justice secretary, David Gauke, has decided to bring all offender management under the National Probation Service (NPS) by spring 2021.

In March a report by the National Audit Office found that failings by the Ministry of Justice in the part-privatisation of probation services would cost taxpayers at least £171m. Under Grayling, in 2013, the ministry created 21 community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) to manage low- and medium-risk offenders with the aim of cutting reoffending rates and costs. The NAO found that while there has been a 2.5% reduction in the proportion of offenders proven to have committed another crime between 2011 and March 2017, the number of offences per reoffender has increased by 22%.