Member

As I indicated a moment ago, much of the Bill will simply shift the burdens facing prison staff on to a Probation Service that is already under severe strain. It will be the Probation Service that is required to manage a much-expanded cohort of offenders in the community. The impact assessment itself conservatively anticipates that 580 additional probation staff would be needed each year, at a cost of over £30 million. Clause 11 compounds that problem by removing the requirement for courts to specify the maximum number of rehabilitation activity days, transferring yet more duties on to probation officers. Overworked, understaffed, and faced with unmanageable case loads, probation officers will inevitably struggle to enforce any meaningful rehabilitation. Under these conditions, offenders could undertake little or no substantive activity before returning to society.