In a major speech, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to strengthen the probation service and ensure the public are better protected from criminals
Offenders whose crimes are driven by addiction, homelessness and joblessness will be monitored differently to dangerous criminals who pose a risk of serious harm to the public.
In a major speech on Wednesday, Shabana Mahmood announced plans to strengthen the probation service and ensure the public are better protected from criminals. She said a “one-size fits all” is not working and has ordered probation officers to treat criminals differently depending on their risk to the public.
The probation service monitors offenders on community sentences or those released on licence from prison. It has been on its knees for years. Last year all probation units inspected were marked as “inadequate” or “requires improvement”.
Among plans announced, Ms Mahmood said 1,300 new probation officers will be recruited by March 2026 – on top of 1,000 new recruits brought on by this March. She will also cancel accredited rehabilitative courses for low risk offenders to ensure high risk offenders who most need them have access.
Nearly 13,000 offenders did not complete these courses before their sentence expired in the three years up to last March(2024) due to a lack of resources, such as no instructors being available. In a searing critique, Ms Mahmood accused the former Tory government of a “sort of blindness” in pretending the system was working as it should.
More widely, Ms Mahmood will build on the Tories’ Probation Reset scheme, which saw the supervision of lower risk offenders end after two-thirds of their licence period. Currently people are eligible for the scheme depending on the crimes they have committed, with terrorist offenders, serious sexual offenders and murderers among those exempt.
Under the Justice Secretary’s new approach, she will categorise offenders by risk instead of by offence. Higher risk offenders are defined as those who are at risk of reoffending and/or their risk of harm to the public.
Probation officers will be told to spend an intense period with lower risk criminals when they are first released from jail, before referring them to relevant services such as education, training, drug treatment or housing support to help tackle the root causes of their crime. The move is hoped to then free up probation officers’ time so they can focus on their monitoring of high risk offenders. The use of new digital tools and artificial intelligence will also be introduced to help improve processes.
During her speech, Ms Mahmood referenced recent scandals including the murders of Zara Aleena, who was killed in 2022 by Jordan McSweeney nine days after he had been released from prison on licence, and Terri Harris and three children in 2021 by Damien Bendall who was serving a community sentence.
“For higher-risk offenders, a probation officer’s time and focus is essential,” she said. “It is no exaggeration to say that effective supervision of this cohort can be the difference between life and death. We will never be able to stop every tragedy. But we have to stop more.”
Elsewhere the Cabinet minister acknowledged the huge strain the probation service has been under in recent years. Ms Mahmood said the service had been let down in recent years “by the politicians who have led it”, hitting out at the “ideological zeal of austerity” and branded former Conservative Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s disastrous attempt to privatise the probation service as “vandalism”.
But the probation officers’ union Napo warned that Ms Mahmood’s reforms won’t go far enough without more support for staff. Asked if the recruitment of 1,300 new officers would be enough, general secretary Ian Lawrence said: “No, even with this year’s intake it’s not going to solve the big problem, as experienced staff are leaving but we obviously support the initiatives. It’s investment in improved pay that’s needed.” Ms Mahmood said discussions over pay are ongoing with the sector.