Last week the powerful House of Commons Public Accounts Committee published a very critical report on the government’s court reform programme. The summary could hardly be more damning: “Seven years into the programme, HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is once again behind on delivering critical reforms to its services.… Overall, the programme will deliver less than previously promised, with work on some services paused altogether ...
This week heralded a welcome piece of good news with the opening of Hope Street, a purpose-built family friendly residential community in Hampshire which is piloting a ground-breaking new approach to supporting women in the justice system. The facility, operated by the One Small Thing (OST) charity, was opened… Work with offenders on long overdue progress with the female offender strategy...
A new pilot will see judges monitoring offenders’ progress during their community sentences while the Probation Service also provides intense supervision. Launched in Liverpool and Teesside this week, the Intensive Supervision Courts will mean judges ordering offenders to attend regular review meetings to check they are meeting the requirements of… The initiative will see judges monitoring progress of offenders serving community sentences. ...
The report finds strong youth justice services, across England and Wales, that are delivering high quality services to children, young people, and the communities in which they live. Overall, services know how to work with their partners to get the best outcomes for children, management boards understand their services and… The outgoing Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, has today published the inspectorate’s annual report on youth justice services. ...
Operational workforce survey Last Friday (23 June 2023), the House of Commons Justice Committee published the results of its survey of prison staff for its inquiry into the prison operational workforce. The purpose of the inquiry is to understand why high volumes of prison officers are leaving the prison service… A survey of prison officers has shown that that 33% Band 2 staff and 43% Band 3-5 staff intend to leave the prison service in the next 5 years....
Probation staff are “buckling” under the pressure of increasing workloads with the recent restructure and staff shortages making it difficult to keep tabs on offenders, unions have said. Napo, UNISON and GMB are calling on the Ministry of Justice to intervene as they launch a campaign aimed at reducing workload.… Napo, UNISON and GMB have warned of a potential “catastrophic breakdown of the service”. ...
50% of operational prison staff do not feel safe at work and less than one quarter of Band 2-5 staff agree that the physical working conditions at their prison are adequate, the House of Commons Justice Committee has found. The chairman of the committee, Sir Bob Neill, has called the… The House of Commons Justice Committee has carried out a survey of Band 2 and Band 3-5 prison staff. ...
Earlier this week the Home Office published the latest statistics from its Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), covering the year 2022. The Unit gave advice or support in just 302 cases, compared to 337 in the previous year, 759 in 2020 and over one thousand in every year of the preceding… In 2022, the Home Office FMU handled cases relating to 25 ‘focus countries’, excluding the UK. ...
A pilot will be launched of Community Payback rapid deployment teams who will attend reports of fly-tipping or vandalism within 48 hours of the Probation Service receiving a report. The six month pilot will see offenders serving community payback sentences being sent out to communities across the country to carry… The teams will be sent to clean up fly-tipping or vandalism within 48 hours of a report being sent to the Probation Service. ...
Based on a survey of more than a third of magistrates’ courts, the report has revealed that a largely inaccessible court estate threatens to undermine the efficiency of courts and equal access to justice. The Magistrates’ Association is the membership body for magistrates in England and Wales and was founded… The Magistrates’ Association has just published a landmark report on the accessibility of magistrates’ courts across England and Wales....