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Probation services in south-west England branded ‘inadequate’

THE government’s outsourcing of probation services was condemned today in a “damning” and “deeply troubling” report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) chief Dame Glenys Stacey.

The watchdog investigated how ex-offenders are being handled across Dorset, Devon and Cornwall by community rehabilitation company Working Links.

Ms Stacey branded the company “inadequate,” the lowest possible rating. The firm has now announced it is going into administration.

HMIP also appears to have discovered fraudulent behaviour at the company.

The watchdog claims that Working Links staff “were under-recording the number of riskier cases because of commercial pressures.”

“They were also completing individuals’ sentence plans to meet performance targets, without actually meeting the offender.”

This led Ms Stacey to conclude that “the professional ethos of probation has buckled under the strain of the commercial pressures.”

Some Working Links officers were handling as many as 168 cases each, which inspectors regarded as an “unmanageable workload.”

Staff had been cut by a third since 2015, with one manager describing the pressure as “mind-blowing.”

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said: “Our probation system is clearly broken. This is yet another public service severely damaged by [former justice secretary] Chris Grayling and the Conservatives’ obsession with privatisation.

“We need a probation system that prioritises keeping the public safe rather than boosting the profits of private companies.

“Labour is fully committed to returning the probation system to the public sector. The Tories must now do likewise.”

GMB union national officer Kevin Brandstatter called the privatisation of the justice sector “an expensive waste.”

He added: “The failure of three community rehabilitation companies in the south-west of England and Wales should serve as a wake-up call to the Ministry of Justice.”

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