Holmes praises the work of the Probation Service in Derbyshire

1.31.00pm GMT Thu 5th Nov 2009

Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield yesterday (Wednesday 4 November) defended the work of the probation service in Derbyshire as the Labour Government announces cuts for the service.

Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate, Paul raised the issue of Government spending cuts as the caseload of the probation service continues to increase. Nationally, the Government will cut the probation service budget by 2.68% next year. Derbyshire probation service has already been told that it will have to lose 30 out of 400 staff by next March.

During the debate, Paul spoke of the public service ethos he had seen so clearly amongst probation staff in Derbyshire and the effectiveness of the work carried out, but warned that Government spending cuts would be self-defeating and lead to a higher rate of re-offending.

Paul said:

"Probation actually works. We are not defending the existing system just because it exists, but because it works.

"On 19 August this summer I spent the day with the probation service in Derbyshire. One overwhelming message came out of meeting all those people that day - they believed implicitly in the value of their work in benefiting the community and turning people's lives around.

"They were imbued with a public service ethos, which some journalists and politicians find hard to understand when they see the world only in the light of people being incentivised to do anything if they are in a bonus culture.

"These probation programmes work. They all make vital interventions; they all improve quality of life for the community; they all cut reoffending rates and they do it far more effectively and at a better cost than prison does.

"Derbyshire probation staff know that what they do is effective. However, the self-defeating cuts that they face in funding and staff will inevitably lead to more reoffending and more problems for the community. This is most certainly one area of public spending that it would be self-defeating and foolish to cut in the years to come."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. The debate in full can be read online here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm091104/halltext/91104h0005.htm#09110487000001

2. Derbyshire probation service piloted the intensive alternatives to custody programme which involves 100 hours of intervention with an offender each week, covering curfew, supervision, education, mentoring, unpaid work amongst other things.

3. Calculations made by Derbyshire probation service show that on a like-for-like basis a 12-month programme for one offender on the intensive alternatives to custody programme would work out at £4,575 a year. The programme is shown to be more effective in rehabilitating offenders and stopping reoffending than a prison sentence.

4. Derbyshire probation service calculated that a full year's custodial sentence would be equivalent to £28,000 a year, yet a prison sentence would be less effective in preventing reoffending and delivering rehabilitation.

5. The Prison Reform Trust estimates that a year's custodial sentence can typically cost as much as £39,000.