Justice Week 8-12 December 2008

October 24, 2006

MPs briefed on Probation Boards Changes

A Statutory Instrument (SI No 2664) was laid before Parliament earlier this month, to enable significant changes to the membership and work of the 42 Probation Boards in England and Wales.

The proposed ‘Local Probation Boards (Appointment and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2006’ introduces three changes, all of which are unnecessary and will be damaging. They are:

- To reduce the quorum from 7 to 5. In Napo’s view this is a precursor to smaller Boards.
- To remove the condition that four members of the current 15 strong Board should be magistrates.
- To take away the necessity that two local authority members sit on Boards.

The changes will undermine local accounability and the historical links of the Service with both the magistrates courts and the local community, which are central to the Probation work.

The Regulations are due to come into force on 1 November. Neil Gerrard MP, on behalf of the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group, has laid down what is known in Parliament as ‘a Prayer’ to annul the Instrument and a briefing from both Napo and the PBA has been sent to all MPs with a letter, from the JUPG, asking them to support the Prayer. You can download a copy of the Napo briefing here. Watch this space for information on progress.

Posted by kfalcon at October 24, 2006 03:15 PM