Member

This issue has been highlighted by Napo, the probation staff union. The union even told me that large, profitable supermarkets and high street bakery companies had expressed an interest in exploiting this free labour. Since then, as the Bill has made its way through the other place, the same concern was raised strongly and still Ministers have not yet ruled out this option. Noble Lords should recall that community service in London was privatised in 2013 and it was an utter disaster. There was a lack of supervision on sites, a lack of workers, a lack of tools, and offenders were sometimes crammed into unsuitable and unsafe vehicles. Napo took action by referring the matter to the International Labour Organization as a breach of the Forced Labour Convention. The ILO found in favour of the union and, as noted earlier, that privatisation collapsed.