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News

News Archives: Index

October 7, 2010: Probation Set For Industrial Action

October 5, 2010: Turning Prisoners Into Taxpayers

October 4, 2010: Murder Changes Now In Force

September 20, 2010: Probation Programmes Face Cuts

August 24, 2010: Victorian Poor Law Records Online

August 10, 2010: Justice Job Cuts

July 28, 2010: Prison Violence Growing

July 22, 2010: Police Numbers: Latest Figures

July 22, 2010: New Jurisdiction Rules

July 16, 2010: CCJS On Prison And Probation Spending Under Labour

July 15, 2010: Latest Statistics On Violent And Sexual Crime

July 15, 2010: Latest National Crime Figures

July 15, 2010: New Chief Prisons Inspector

July 14, 2010: Hard Times Ahead For Prisons: Anne Owers

July 14, 2010: Prison Does Not Work: Ken Clarke

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform: Sentencing and Rehabilitation

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform Priorities

July 12, 2010: What Price Public Protection, Asks Probation Chief Inspector

July 12, 2010: NOMS has failed, says Napo

July 10, 2010: IPCC To Investigate Death of Raoul Moat

July 9, 2010: Women In Prison: New Report

July 9, 2009: Unjust Deserts: Imprisonment for Public Protection

July 8, 2010: Police Search Powers Change

July 7, 2010: Make 'Legal High' Illegal, Says ACMD

July 2, 2010: Failing Children In Prison

July 2, 2010: Police Buried Under a Blizzard of Guidance: HMIC

July 1, 2010: Freedom To Change The Law?

June 30, 2010: A New Outlook On Penal Reform?

June 30, 2010: Revolving Door Of Offending Must Stop, Says Clarke

June 30, 2010: Ken Clarke: Speech on Criminal Justice Reform

June 29, 2010: No More Police Targets

June 26, 2010: Family Intervention Projects Questioned

June 25, 2010: Cutting Criminal Justice

June 24, 2010: Napo on Sex Offenders Report

June 23, 2010: Closing Courts: The Cuts Begin

June 23, 2010: Strategy To Tackle Gangs

June 15, 2010: Courts and Mentally Disordered Offenders

June 8, 2010: Working With Muslims in Prison

June 1, 2010: Your Chance To Nominate a QC

August 10, 2010: Justice Job Cuts

According to the public sector union PCS (The Public and Commercial Services Union), the Ministry of Justice is planning for job cuts on a large scale as the first indication of the savings demanded by the coalition government is revealed.

An announcement made to staff today indicates that around  that around £2 billion of the Ministry of Justice’s £9 billion budget will be axed.

The PCS notes that this is equivalent to the entire budget for prisons, or the money the department spends each year on courts and tribunals.

Cuts on this scale cannot be delivered without closing prisons and bringing courts to a standstill. The union also fears that about 15,000 of the MoJ’s 80,000 staff could be at risk of losing their jobs. Staff have been told that many savings will have to be made within the first two years of the next spending review period, which will be announced on 20 October.

The union believes that the government should be creating jobs, not cutting them, to help the economy to grow as the recovery from recession remains fragile. The department should also focus on alternative ways to deliver justice, rather than simply adding to the growing prison population.

Many services, including the collection of fines by the courts, are already under severe strain and the union fears these cuts will leave the department unable to function.

The PCS has previously said that 25% cuts in the Crown Prosecution Service, which would mean around 1,800 job losses, would make it virtually impossible for the staff that remain to adequately deal with workloads and prosecute cases effectively.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka stated:

 “This is the first indication of the true scale of the cuts being imposed upon departments by this coalition government, and it paints a devastating picture.
“It is clear that the civil service will simply not be able to cope. We will take every opportunity to remind the government and the public that there is an alternative and these politically-motivated cuts are entirely avoidable.”

Commenting on the news that the Ministry of Justice budget will be cut from £9 billion to £7 billion over the next three years, Harry Fletcher, Assistant General Secretary of probation union Napo said:

“These cuts will lead to huge reductions in staff.  As a consequence individuals on probation will no longer be supervised properly.  There is therefore highly likely to be a huge rise in the prison population, with the use of court and police cells as overspill.

"This will adversely affect the ability of the courts and the police to function properly and will lead to a crisis of public confidence.  It is difficult to see how the current levels of public protection can be maintained and cuts to probation supervision are certain to lead to an increase in reoffending.  The criminal justice system will be unable therefore to fulfil its statutory duties”.