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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

June 25, 2010: Cutting Criminal Justice

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have written to criminal justice staff and other public sector workers asking for their ideas on how the Government can cut costs.

As part of the Spending Review set out in this week’s Budget, the Government is launching a ‘Spending Challenge’ aimed at engaging the country in thinking about public services and how they are provided.

The first phase of the Challenge aims to harness the experience and insight of those at the front line, including court staff, prison and probation officers and civil servants, who will be asked to look at three areas:

  • Government-funded activities that they believe are non-essential and should not continue.
  • How the Government can better target activities or provide them more effectively.
  • Activities that can be provided completely differently to save money, including by providers other than Government.

Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, said:

'The challenge for us is to reform and improve the way we do things, so that we can continue to maintain and increase the quality of service without spending so much money. That's a very tall order.
'It has implications for every part of the service, prisons, legal aid, criminal justice, courts administration and is quite a challenge. So I would urge everybody who has a good idea about how we can achieve more for less to get involved with the Spending Challenge.'

A website has been set up to let the country’s six million public sector workers submit their answers to the question, 'How do we rethink services to deliver more for less?'

Earlier, the policing and criminal justice minister has laid out government plans for creating a system shaped by the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility. An 'ambitious' programme of reform was promised by Nick Herbert as he set out the new government’s approach to law and order.

Addressing the Policy Exchange on 23 June 2010, the policing and criminal justice minister said that the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility which underpin the coalition government’s programme will guide the new approach. Mr Herbert said: 'Individual and social responsibility is the most important principle that we will apply'. He said that the government will insist that offenders pay back to society and victims by working in the community and earning their release from prison.

This should be matched by a 'resurgence in community activism … encouraging communities to share responsibility for making their neighbourhoods safer'. He pointed out that there had been a decline in participation over the years – in the 1950s, for example, there were nearly five times the number of special constables as today.

He promised an 'evidence-led approach' to change in criminal justice policy, saying that a review of the toolkit for antisocial behaviour 'will ensure that agencies have effective measures to tackle it'.

However, he warned that reform must 'be married with the reality of the fiscal position'. The criminal justice system, he said, will play its part in reducing spending by £17 billion as laid out in this week’s budget. Reforms in legal aid, the court service estate and greater efficiencies made by police forces will help contribute.