Sweeping cuts in the criminal justice budget could lead to 300,000 more crimes each year, probation officers said this weekend.
A leaked Whitehall document reveals that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) plans to trim almost 25% from its annual budget of £1.1 billion by 2012.
Hundreds of probation jobs could be axed, which, it is claimed, could lead to a rise in reoffending rates. Based on today’s crime figures, the number of offences would increase from 4.9m to 5.2m.
Edward Garnier, the shadow justice minister, said the government was putting public safety at risk. He said: “At a time when the government has released tens of thousands of offenders early from custody and we have hundreds of thousands of people on licence, to see the probation service placed under more strain is asking for trouble.”
The probation service employs about 21,000 staff in England and Wales and 90% are responsible for preparing offenders for their release from jail. The work is crucial in helping many criminals not to reoffend.
A leaked letter to probation chiefs from Roger Hill, the director of probation at the MoJ, said that planned cuts would amount to £120m by 2012.
However, the size of the reductions will be deeper because, as Hill’s letter discloses, this figure does not take into account inflation over those four years. This is now running at 5%, though it is expected to fall sharply.
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, the probation union, said: “The probation service will not be able to deal with these reductions in budget. Service delivery will collapse and there will be a substantial rise in reoffending.
“Napo has calculated a minimum of 300,000 further offences per annum. The government creating a crime wave through untenable cuts.”
The MoJ said last night while efficiency savings had to be made there had been no final decision on the size of the cuts. It said that funds would be focused on those offenders who most posed a risk to the public.
Filed under: Law & Order | Tagged: Crime, Ministry of Justice
