Plaid Cymru MP Elfyn Llwyd writes for ePolitix.com ahead of his Westminster Hall debate on the probation service.
The probation and justice system in England and Wales will see a budget cut of £24million in the financial year 2010/11.
This is clearly untenable and is bound to lead to increases in crime and more victims as the service struggles to offer adequate supervision.
On top of this, there has been a growth of 53 per cent in the total number of offenders supervised by the probation service since 1997.
Over the past few months, I have consistently raised questions as to the issues specifically surrounding the cuts in funding for trainee probation officers.
Despite substantial investment into training new recruits - £93,000 spent on training new officers - a large shortage of jobs for trainee probation officers now exists that will significantly stretch public services.
A large number of trainee probation officers will qualify at the end of this financial year, but will either be given a temporary contract, a lower paid job or not offered employment at all.
Across England and Wales – over £20million of taxpayers' money will have been wasted not to mention a huge waste of talent and resources. Evidence suggests that at least 1,000 jobs will be lost over the next two years – at least half of whom will be frontline staff.
The other key issue at stake is caseloads for probation officers.
No real figure is available for this but my understanding is that it is at an all time high. Staff are already spending less time with offenders than ever before. With such numbers – is it really surprising that we've come across cases such as the high profile Sonnex case?
The prime minister has promised tougher sentencing and better tracking of those released from prison – how then is he going to uphold this when such cuts are being made to our police force?
These are just some of the issues I hope to raise at the debate on the probation service at Westminster Hall.
Elfyn Llwyd is MP for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy.
