Judy McKnight's Napolog

Web log of Napo's general secretary

June 29, 2007

Dear Jack

So Jack Straw returns as Secretary of State for Justice. He was previously Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001.

I have written to him welcoming him to his position and asking for an early meeting.

I said in the letter that we remained “appreciative of many of the measures you introduced when you were previously Home Secretary. We particularly welcomed your re-introduction of the Probation Training qualification, after the “Howard Gap”, and we fully supported the outcome of the Prison-Probation Review which led to the re-structuring of the Probation Service from 2001.
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Ironically, at the time of writing, we remain concerned at the potential for another training gap for the Probation Service. We are also concerned that all the progress that emerged from your Prisons-Probation Review - which has led to the Service performing better than ever against all targets – could be seriously undermined by the introduction of the changes set out in the Offender Management Bill.”

I will also be writing to Charlie Falconer thanking him for his contribution as Secretary of State for Justice for the past few weeks.

He may only have been “our boss” for a matter of weeks, but he went out of his way to be positive about Probation and praise the work of probation staff.

Posted by jmcknight at June 29, 2007 08:12 AM