Friday, March 01, 2019
More failings by Grayling
The Guardian carries a follow-up to my long history of Chris Grayling gaffes from two weeks ago, reporting on the findings of the National Audit Office that failings by the Ministry of Justice on his watch in the part-privatisation of probation services have been “extremely costly” for taxpayers.
They say that a review of Chris Grayling’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme found that the number of people on short sentences recalled to jail had soared and the termination of contracts with private probation companies would cost at least £171m.
There has been a 2.5% reduction in the proportion of offenders proven to have committed another crime between 2011 and March 2017. However, the number of offences per reoffender has increased by 22%:
Amyas Morse, the NAO chief, said: “The ministry set itself up to fail in how it approached probation reforms. Its rushed rollout created significant risks that it was unable to manage.
“Not only have these failings been extremely costly for taxpayers, but we have seen the number of people on short sentences recalled to prison skyrocket.”
Last July, the justice secretary, David Gauke, announced that private companies running CRCs would have their contracts terminated in 2020, two years earlier than agreed.
So far, they have received £467m in projected bailouts, a proportion of which was given to cover penalties owed by the companies for failing to meet targets under Grayling’s “payment by results” system. When current contract-holders were in the bidding process, their collected forecasted profits were £269m, but by March 2018 CRCs faced collective losses of £294m.
Is there no end to Chris Grayling's talents?
They say that a review of Chris Grayling’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme found that the number of people on short sentences recalled to jail had soared and the termination of contracts with private probation companies would cost at least £171m.
There has been a 2.5% reduction in the proportion of offenders proven to have committed another crime between 2011 and March 2017. However, the number of offences per reoffender has increased by 22%:
Amyas Morse, the NAO chief, said: “The ministry set itself up to fail in how it approached probation reforms. Its rushed rollout created significant risks that it was unable to manage.
“Not only have these failings been extremely costly for taxpayers, but we have seen the number of people on short sentences recalled to prison skyrocket.”
Last July, the justice secretary, David Gauke, announced that private companies running CRCs would have their contracts terminated in 2020, two years earlier than agreed.
So far, they have received £467m in projected bailouts, a proportion of which was given to cover penalties owed by the companies for failing to meet targets under Grayling’s “payment by results” system. When current contract-holders were in the bidding process, their collected forecasted profits were £269m, but by March 2018 CRCs faced collective losses of £294m.
Is there no end to Chris Grayling's talents?
