Private companies could pull out of probation – why were they ever invited IN?

Last Updated: March 22, 2017By

Dame Glenys Stacey, the chief inspector of probation, said privatisation had proved ‘enormously difficult’ [Image: Paul Faith/PA].

Probation is part of the justice system; inviting private firms to run it is inviting corruption.

Now two of these firms are claiming they aren’t being paid enough – quelle surprise.

Are they trying to blackmail the Tory Government into paying them more, for the sake of an ideological point?

If so, then what’s the point of privatisation? The whole argument is that services become cheaper and more efficient!

Of course, we have countless examples to show that this isn’t true, but the facts never seem to put Tories off.

And they never mind throwing good money after bad. Watch this space.

Two of the private companies that provide 50% of probation services in England and Wales have confirmed to MPs they will have to consider quitting if a Ministry of Justice review fails to deliver improvements.

Interserve Justice and MTCnovo, which have contracts worth more than £150m a year to run “community rehabilitation companies”, have told the Commons justice select committee that their finances are unsustainable. “Our work is going up, our payment is going down,” said Yvonne Thomas, director of justice at Interserve.

The warning that pulling out of their probation contracts “will be an option on the table that will have to be considered” was delivered after the chief inspector of probation told MPs that probation privatisation had proved “enormously difficult” since it was introduced in 2014.

Source: Private companies could pull out of probation contracts over costs | Society | The Guardian

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4 Comments

  1. Justin March 22, 2017 at 2:07 am - Reply

    bring probation back inhouse and throw these companies out, 150 million would be better spent doing this in house rather than greedy companies try to profit from government contracts,clearly government still does not learn from the mistakes the wca greed companies make and the fact that this is not saving anything and is having’s impact on people recovery which is also hitting nhs budgets when people go back into the system

  2. NMac March 22, 2017 at 9:03 am - Reply

    In answer to the question posed in the title headline, so that the nasty Tories and their chums could make money out of the Probation Service, …at our expense.

  3. chriskitcher March 22, 2017 at 11:14 am - Reply

    Bet they sack the Chief Inspector of Probation. Problem solved?

  4. Barry Davies March 22, 2017 at 5:03 pm - Reply

    They probably used the usual means of obtaining the contracts, by having the lowest or near lowest cost/charges, cut staff to the bone and now when they think it would cost the government more to regain old staff go for the throw tog et the monies they would have asked for initially if they had been honest, bit like the loss leader magazines that 99p for the first publication then go to double or treble before you get all the parts to build your ship, robot, or car.

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