June 4, 2009: Sonnex's Management: Not About Resources

Justice Secretary Jack Straw has stated that the management of Danno Sonnex was not a result of insufficient probation service resources. The fundamental problems, he said, were managerial. He stated:

‘I will personally monitor progress closely until I am satisfied that high standards are being achieved. I will also be making a statement in parliament about this as soon as possible. All of the reports within my ambit will be presented to parliament and made public.'

‘There may be those who assert that insufficient probation service resources was a factor in these failings. This is emphatically not the case. Probation spending has increased 70% in real terms in the last 12 years. Last year London Probation under spent by £3.5 million on a budget of £154 million, and the service as a whole under spent by £17 million.

'The fundamental problems – as the independent reports emphasise – were managerial. It was a failure to allocate London Probation resources sensibly between the different areas, to supervise workloads, and to heed obvious warning signs – like sickness rates in Lewisham and Greenwich probation area being an average of 27 days per year, more than twice the London Probation average.'

‘Probation officers do an extremely tough job supervising difficult and dangerous people. The number of serious further offence convictions against all offenders supervised by the Probation Service is actually around 0.35% and in London it is approximately 0.2% of London’s total caseload. I do not want this to be a reflection on the valuable work they do every day to protect the public, reduce re-offending and support victims.’

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