Labour forces vote on Government’s reckless privatisation of Probation Service

1. Labour will vote against the Government’s half baked and dangerous plans to privatise the probation in a debate on the Offender Rehabilitation Bill.
   In the Commons today (Monday 11th November) Labour will argue the untried and untested nature of the Government’s plans risk public safety.

   The Government’s plans will abolish local Probation Trusts, fragment the service based on the risk level of offenders, hand over supervision of serious and violent offenders to the likes of G4S and Serco and impose a never before used payment by results model. This is all being done without any piloting and at breakneck speed.

   Commenting ahead of the vote, Shadow Justice Secretary Sadiq Khan said:

   "We seriously disagree with the Government’s plans to privatise the Probation Service, which are a massive leap into the dark. There’s no evidence their fragmentation of the Probation Service will deliver lower reoffending and won’t risk public safety.

   "Labour supports the extension of supervision to those on short prison sentences. The evidence shows that those supervised on release from prison are less likely to go on to reoffend. The extension therefore makes sense if we’re to win the battle to break the cycle of reoffending. But we have no confidence the Government’s privatised probation service will be able to implement this extension of supervision.

   "Experts, probation staff and management and MPs from all side have warned the abolition of the Probation Service and handing over serious and violent criminals to the likes of G4S and Serco will put the safety of communities up and down the country at risk. The Government needs to think again before it’s too late"

   
   

   Labour Party