L

Lord Timpson (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 14 October 2025

Debate

Prisoners: Reoffending

Contribution

The extra £700 million for probation is a 45% increase. From what I have learned, all roads lead back to probation, and so that is where we need to focus our investment. We are recruiting 1,300 more staff and we will be recruiting more. We have not decided exactly how the money is going be split up. A lot of it will be for accommodation, some of it for tagging, and some of it for the support networks to help with mental health and work. I am confident that we can make big changes quickly, but we have to embrace digital technology. Far too much of probation officers’ time—70%—is spent doing admin, when I believe that 70% of their time should be spent face-to-face with offenders, helping them turn their lives around.

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