Grayling's reforms scrapped as probation is renationalised
Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
May 16 2019, 12:01am, The Times
Chris Grayling spent £3.7 billion on changes that a watchdog called "irredeemably flawed"ALAMY
The government will renationalise the probation service after a semi-privatisation that a watchdog described as "irredeemably flawed".
The supervision of tens of thousands of low and medium-risk offenders will return to the public sector after having been outsourced to private companies, the government will announce today.
Private companies and the voluntary sector will still be able to compete for work in services such as training, preparing offenders for work, and alcohol and drug treatment, worth about £280 million a year. David Gauke, the justice secretary, said all supervision and management of offenders done by community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) would return to the National Probation Service (NPS) from 2021.
Private companies expressed disappointment at the move and warned that it would result in an even more…