Below is a Labour Party press release about the potential threat to public safety and the increased cost to the taxpayer of the Coalition's proposals to privatise the Probation Service. Yet more evidence of a Coalition centralising local services with little accountability whilst selling valuable public services to thier rich and powerful friends in multi-national private big companies.
READING & DISTRICT LABOUR PARTY MEDIA RELEASE
28 October 2013
Having private companies supervise 5500+ Thames Valley offenders will put public safety at risk, says Victoria Groulef
Convicted criminals in the Reading area, many of them guilty of serious crimes including robberies, sex attacks and burglaries, could soon be supervised by G4S and Serco, as the Conservative Government privatises the Probation Service.
A Freedom of Information request has revealed the number of offenders currently being supervised by highly trained professional probation officers that will be off-loaded to private companies. In the Thames valley that means that 5616 offenders in the hands of the likes of G4S and Serco.
Up to now the Government has refused to reveal how many serious and violent offenders would be put in the hands of private companies, but Labour’s Freedom of Information request has revealed the true scale of their plans in our local area.
Victoria Groulef, Labour's Parliamentary Candidate for Reading West, commenting on this data, said: “You can’t take risks with public safety yet this is precisely what the Government is doing with their plans to privatise the Probation Service. Handing over supervision for serious and violent offenders to the same companies that have let down the taxpayer time and again is a recipe for disaster.
“Both G4S and Serco are currently under investigation for alleged irregularities with contracts for electronic tagging and prisoner transport by the Serious Fraud Office and the National Audit Office. Chris Grayling has refused Labour’s calls to bar both companies from the forthcoming £800million privatisation of the Probation Service.
“The public need to be confident that those under supervision in our communities aren’t part of some giant experiment. But the Conservative-led Government is running scared – they’ve not brought their plans before Parliament, instead choosing to rush ahead at breakneck speed and impose an untested and untried payment by results model on probation. No piloting has taken place to see whether this will work or not, or to iron out any failings. In his first week as Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling cancelled the pilots in two Probation Trusts. This is just a reckless gamble with public safety.”
//ENDS
Editor’s Notes
1. Under Government plans, supervision of low and medium risk offenders will be handed over to the private sector.
2. Although rated low or medium risk, this does not directly reflect the original crime. Many of those rated low or medium risk have committed serious and violent crimes such as domestic violence, burglary, robbery, violence against the person & sexual offenders.
3. The Government has so far refused to say how many offenders this would affect. Labour therefore submitted Freedom of Information requests to each Probation Trust in the country to find out how many low and medium risk offenders were supervised in 2012 to provide an illustration of how many would become the responsibility of private companies under the Government’s plans. The results are given in the table below.
Probation Trust Area Low & Medium Risk Offenders Supervised in 2012
Avon & Somerset Probation Trust 5327
Bedfordshire Probation Trust 2605
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Probation Trust 1791
Cheshire Probation Trust 2897
Cumbria Probation Trust 1657
Derbyshire Probation Trust 3556
Devon and Cornwall Probation Trust 3850
Dorset Probation Trust 1841
Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust 7917
Essex Probation 5699
Gloucestershire Probation Trust 2047
Greater Manchester Probation Trust 12565
Hampshire Probation Trust 5712
Hertfordshire Probation Trust 3517
Humberside Probation Trust 4944
Kent Probation 7321
Lancashire Probation Trust 7797
Leicestershire Rutland Probation Trust 3200
Lincolnshire Probation Trust 2652
London Probation Trust 21252
Merseyside Probation Trust 5466
Norfolk & Suffolk Probation Trust 2248
Nottinghamshire Probation Trust 9417
Northamptonshire Probation Trust 3157
Northumbria Probation Trust 5932
South Yorkshire Probation Trust 7565
Staffordshire & West Midlands Probation Trust 20988
Surrey & Sussex Probation Trust 7313
Thames Valley Probation 5616
Wales Probation Trust 11993
Warwickshire Probation Trust 1620
West Mercia Probation Trust 3616
West Yorkshire Probation Trust 12219
Wiltshire Probation Trust 1252
York & North Yorkshire Probation Trust 2399
TOTAL 209,008
For information on Reading Labour Party and its campaigns visit www.readinglabour.org.uk
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