Well, that's all put quite a smile on my face as it very much looks like politics and the serious business of running a country is now focused on sorting things out rather than simply looking after one's self. Lets not beat about the bush, this very early appointment is inspirational and maybe a strong signal that criminal justice matters might just be less of a political football and more of an enlightened attempt at finding solutions over the coming months.
"This is an excellent appointment! A man who will bring his head, heart and hands to the role. I've worked with many former offenders who were given a life-changing second chance by Timpsons."
"Good to see James Timpson appointed as Prison and Probation Minister. A knowledgeable reformer and maybe also a step towards taking the politics out of punishment - though there may be questions about accountability to MPs."
"The Prime Minister has the power to appoint anyone as a Minister, first making them a peer if need be. Some have used that power to appoint friends, cronies, donors, even relatives. Starmer has used it to appoint people who are experts in their field."
"This is an exceptional appointment. Great start from Starmer. Probation has been in chaos since Grayling. Now it gets an independent authoritative passionate champion. Huge majority but still makes non-partisan appointment."
"Very interesting appointment. James has been a strong advocate for employing people with lived experience of prison and was Chair of the Prison Reform Trust."
"I think it's great. I've said elsewhere, it's hard for governments to be strategic in an emergency. There's a crisis: this appointment looks strategic, rather than merely tactical. Solutions need to be implemented at several points, and to be interconnected. James can do that."
"Looking at the formation of a new cabinet and I realise it’s been while since ministers were appointed on the basis of knowing something about their area of responsibility rather than actively hating it."
"Absolutely fantastic choice. James Timpson has done a huge amount for prisoners. Look forward to seeing his ideas for fixing the broken system."
"This is an inspired appointment but we should not underestimate the financial, political and organisational challenges he will face or the frustrations of working in government. But no one better to face them imo. Good luck James Timpson."
"Absolutely. No magic solutions to the problems being inherited by this government, certainly not in criminal justice. But well-guided, inclusive, informed graft could gradually get us to a much better place."
"This is a very interesting appointment. Successive Tory administrations relegated the role of prisons minister so far back they sometimes almost forgot to appoint them. If nothing else, Keir Starmer is appointing thinkers and doers. I am impressed! The speed of the appointment of James Timpson is also very significant. As I've said, previous administrations have sometimes almost forgotten to appoint prisons ministers. Not now."
"The prospect of, at long last, the simplistic & false rhetoric of 'build more prisons & just bang people up in them' coming to an end feels too good to be true."
"This has the potential to be an absolutely incredible appointment. I need to sit down."
"Such an appointment has been met with plaudits. And for this to happen, Mr. Timpson had to first be made a member of the House of Lords. Critics will keep an eagle eye on his declaration of interests, due to his obvious commercial interests in the very sector he is now minister for."
William James Timpson OBE DL (born 17 September 1971) is a British businessman, philanthropist, and politician. He has been CEO of Timpson Group, owned by his father, John Timpson, since 2002, and Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation since July 2024. He is due to be conferred with a life peerage.
Timpson attended Uppingham School. He completed a degree in Geography at Durham University before joining the family business.
Known for advocating the employment of former prisoners, he was the Chair of the Employers Forum for Reducing Re-offending (EFFRR) until 2016, and became Chair of the Prison Reform Trust that same year. He also founded the Employment Advisory Board network across the prison estate, which links prisons with employers to improve the employment opportunities for ex-offenders upon release.
In November 2018, Timpson was selected to co-chair one of five new business councils by the Prime Minister, to advise on how to create the best conditions for UK businesses after Brexit. He was the co-chair of the Small Business, Scale ups and Entrepreneurs Council, alongside Brent Hoberman and Emma Jones.
In March 2021, he was reappointed by the Prime Minister as Trustee of the Tate for a four year period in March 2021. He replaced Jonathon Porritt as Chancellor of Keele University in June 2022.
Timpson wrote a column on business and leadership for The Sunday Times throughout 2021, and this inspired his book The Happy Index: Lessons in Upside-Down Management, which was published in February 2024.
In July 2024, he was appointed Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation in the Starmer ministry by the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
"Very interesting appointment. James has been a strong advocate for employing people with lived experience of prison and was Chair of the Prison Reform Trust."
"I think it's great. I've said elsewhere, it's hard for governments to be strategic in an emergency. There's a crisis: this appointment looks strategic, rather than merely tactical. Solutions need to be implemented at several points, and to be interconnected. James can do that."
"Looking at the formation of a new cabinet and I realise it’s been while since ministers were appointed on the basis of knowing something about their area of responsibility rather than actively hating it."
"Absolutely fantastic choice. James Timpson has done a huge amount for prisoners. Look forward to seeing his ideas for fixing the broken system."
"This is an inspired appointment but we should not underestimate the financial, political and organisational challenges he will face or the frustrations of working in government. But no one better to face them imo. Good luck James Timpson."
"Absolutely. No magic solutions to the problems being inherited by this government, certainly not in criminal justice. But well-guided, inclusive, informed graft could gradually get us to a much better place."
"This is a very interesting appointment. Successive Tory administrations relegated the role of prisons minister so far back they sometimes almost forgot to appoint them. If nothing else, Keir Starmer is appointing thinkers and doers. I am impressed! The speed of the appointment of James Timpson is also very significant. As I've said, previous administrations have sometimes almost forgotten to appoint prisons ministers. Not now."
"It also means some important thinking has gone on behind the scenes. I hope this ushers in a serious embrace of evidence-led policy, as some other appointments suggest."
"I hope this shows that the Starmer administration understands the depth of the prison crisis, and its wider impact on public health, public safety and the economy. It's hard for governments to be strategic in an emergency, but James Timpson's appointment sure looks strategic."
"I hope this shows that the Starmer administration understands the depth of the prison crisis, and its wider impact on public health, public safety and the economy. It's hard for governments to be strategic in an emergency, but James Timpson's appointment sure looks strategic."
"It's great to have "one of us" actually doing the work! He understands the task, knows about the lives of people who live and work in prisons, and has pioneered successful solutions for parts of people's justice journeys. The challenge will be to tackle systemic self perpetuation."
"Genuinely excited to see what's planned for prisons, parole and probation now we get to work with James Timpson."
"This has the potential to be an absolutely incredible appointment. I need to sit down."
--oo00oo--
From Wikipedia:-
Timpson attended Uppingham School. He completed a degree in Geography at Durham University before joining the family business.
Known for advocating the employment of former prisoners, he was the Chair of the Employers Forum for Reducing Re-offending (EFFRR) until 2016, and became Chair of the Prison Reform Trust that same year. He also founded the Employment Advisory Board network across the prison estate, which links prisons with employers to improve the employment opportunities for ex-offenders upon release.
In November 2018, Timpson was selected to co-chair one of five new business councils by the Prime Minister, to advise on how to create the best conditions for UK businesses after Brexit. He was the co-chair of the Small Business, Scale ups and Entrepreneurs Council, alongside Brent Hoberman and Emma Jones.
In March 2021, he was reappointed by the Prime Minister as Trustee of the Tate for a four year period in March 2021. He replaced Jonathon Porritt as Chancellor of Keele University in June 2022.
Timpson wrote a column on business and leadership for The Sunday Times throughout 2021, and this inspired his book The Happy Index: Lessons in Upside-Down Management, which was published in February 2024.
In July 2024, he was appointed Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation in the Starmer ministry by the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
I think it's a great appointment. Giving someone a position that might know something and have an interest in their brief? Who knew?
ReplyDeleteThe crumbling CJS wasn't really a great focus of the election campaign, but it's clear that with the speed of this appointment and the credentials of the appointee, it's something that the new PM has given a lot of thought too.
Here's to hope!
'Getafix
That's all great, but let's see how your clients do with basic things like getting a gp appointment and accommodation.
ReplyDeleteFrom Food Behind Bars on Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"We welcome the new Prisons Minister, @JamesTCobbler
this morning with much hope and optimism - two things this sector so desperately needs right now. His humanity, compassion and understanding of the system are undeniable. We look forward to seeing what he achieves."
Starmer still wants to build more prisons tho ☹️
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c16jpkzz9g3o
DeleteSir Keir Starmer has said he wants to reduce the number of people going to prison through renewed efforts to cut reoffending.
It comes after he appointed a businessman as his prisons minister who has previously said only a third of prisoners should be there.
In his election campaign he said he would build the prisons that the Tories did not
DeleteI’m genuinely excited by James Timpson https://x.com/krishgm/status/1809503192511602776?s=46
ReplyDeleteWatch this it’s fascinating - I asked James Timpson what he’d do about prisons and sentencing if he was in charge. He believes only a third of prisoners in jail should definitely be there. He’s now in charge of prisons (but not sentencing).
DeleteLet's hope this guy gives probation a proper pay rise. Then we'll see how much the service is worth.
ReplyDeleteNothing actually probation is way down the food chain and as we currently only desk manage cases on a pc nothing is likely to impact on an administration function that operates inside set parameters. Late nite insomnia .
DeleteIts pretty clear that Labours win was based more on anti-Tory sentiment as opposed to any pro-Labour one. Labour will do a bit of window dressing, but things will remain very much the same.
ReplyDelete"Labour will do a bit of window dressing, but things will remain very much the same."
DeleteWhat is blindingly obvious by day two of the Starmer era is that nothing could be further from the truth. I very much sense a national sigh of relief that serious committed people are now in charge and are laser-focused on returning to governing with integrity, probity and compassion, something that has been so lacking over the last 14 years that it is immediately noticeable. It was it's obvious absence that won the election, not fucking fake promises of tax cuts, something no Tory is capable of understanding as they scrabble to try and rebuild. This is not window dressing, it is the simple belief that lies at the heart of the new government's agenda and that will inexorably underpin all policy decisions. That alone is a massive difference to what has been endured under Tory rule and will garner growing support.
From Twitter:-
Delete"Hang on. A prime minister answering a question directly? What happened to waffling for ages and quoting a bit of Latin. Or answering a completely different question. And then repeating that same answer over and over again. Where’s the three word slogan? I’m confused."
From Twitter:-
Delete"Whatever your issues with Starmer, it's now apparent that the Tory attack line that he had no plan was even more ludicrously incorrect than it seemed. You might not like the plan, but I doubt we have seen more detailed, meticulous planning in government in our lifetimes."
From Twitter:-
Delete"No more Rwanda scheme. No more Legacy Act. No threats to leave the ECHR, and tear up the Good Friday Agreement in the process. No more attacks on lawyers, migrants, and the most vulnerable in our society. Let that sink in."
It seems pretty obvious to me, that if the starting point at looking at how to resolve the problems in the CJS is that we send too many people to prison, then there has to be a huge focus on probation,what it does, what it achieves, and what it's function should be within the CJS.
DeleteThings get done in a particular way for so long, people can't perceive how it could be done any differently.
Probation is just as broken as our politics.
The question now is, do we want a probation service that works for and supports and assists offenders to keep people out of prison, or do we want a post release parole service that polices and enforces license conditions, and provides a back door into prison?
'Getafix
Yet again 'Getafix gets to the nub of things.
DeleteI often post contributions from 'Getafix on Twitter and invariably they enjoy many reposts and often get very positive responses from influential commentators. Here is an example:- " Great points from Jim here on importance of probation if you want to reduce the prison population. The criminal justice system is all interconnected — changing one part has knock-on effects on others. Not appreciating this is a major reason for current problems in courts too." I will be responding making the point that it is from a regular contributor.
DeleteWell, let's hope we get a substantial pay rise that is comsummerate with the thousands of extra cases heading our way.
DeleteConsumerate. DEFINITION: v. To compensate for lack of love, attention and/or sexual favors by buying things, lots of things.
Deleteor
commensurate
/kəˈmɛnʃ(ə)rət,kəˈmɛnsjʊrət/
adjective
adjective: commensurate
corresponding in size or degree; in proportion.
"salary will be commensurate with age and experience"
Choose your weapon.
"It was it's obvious absence that won the election, not fucking"
DeleteWhat's obvious, is that Jim is a full on frothing at the mouth for Labour.
Agree @ 20:17
DeleteLabour's role is to take over as the frontmen for British imperialism when the Tories have become too despised to be able to credibly carry out the business of the ruling class.
DeleteThis is when the ruling class turns to the Labour party, as it is doing now. It does this also to use the Labour party’s link to the trade unions to divide the working class and squash any potential militant struggles.
Labours win is therefore nothing to get excited about.
"This is when the ruling class turns to the Labour party, as it is doing now." What nonsense.
DeleteTimpson charges a fortune for key cutting,I wonder if his father was a tool maker!
ReplyDeleteThe new prisons minister heads the successful Timpson group, whose employees include ex-offenders
ReplyDeleteMaking a shoe repair businessman the minister for prisons is an unusual governmental appointment, but James Timpson is an unusual type of businessman.
The 52-year-old chief executive of the Timpson group has given the family business a reputation for radical approaches to the way it treats employees and customers that goes beyond offering key cutting, phone repairs and dry cleaning.
More than 10% of the firm’s workforce are former prisoners. It has an “upside down” management style where the 5,600 employees are in charge and the Timpson family is in the top 10 highest taxpayers in the UK.
In 2021, Timpson told workers they could claim prescription charges for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on expenses. They have offered to clean job interview outfits for free for customers who are unemployed. The Alex Timpson Trust offers free holiday homes for foster families because James’s parents, John and Alex, who died in 2016, fostered 90 children over 31 years at their home in Manchester.
And the company does small jobs for free, such as adding a new belt hole for customers, asking them to make a donation instead of paying, which has raised more than £4m for charities so far.
James Timpson has previously worked with Conservative ministers on prison reform – Rishi Sunak visited a Timpson’s during the election campaign – and was chair of the Prison Reform Trust until his surprise appointment yesterday, which was broadly welcomed.
A worker at a Timpson’s in south Kensington, who didn’t want to give his name, said: “Although they hire ex-offenders, they won’t bring back certain criminals. So they have control of who they bring into the workforce so there’s no accidents or recurrences in the future.
“To give people second chances – to help them believe that they can actually be good and decent people, and to be able to help out the community and just be seen as a normal person without having to worry about all their past dealings – is a great thing.”
Andrea Coomber, chief executive at the Howard League, a leading prison reform charity, welcomed the appointment. “For more than 20 years, James has been visiting prisons and recruiting prison leavers,” she said. “Having seen the system up close, James understands that prisons currently are unable to rehabilitate or hold safely and decently the huge numbers of people within them.
“He understands that an urgent review of population numbers and of sentencing is long overdue. We look forward to sound, evidence-led policy from the new government that prioritises rehabilitation, productive sentences and the use of prison only where absolutely necessary.”
Prison Reform Trust chief executive Pia Sinha thanked Timpson for his “inspirational leadership, support, wisdom and generosity”.
Above today's Guardian online.
DeleteThe reality is these types of appointments usually fail and end in tears. Remember Professor Nutt? Frank Field told to think the unthinkable? How do you think Mr Timpson will deal with the civil servants in HMPpS? Will Starmer protect him when the Sun and the Mail publish their 'soft on crime' stories? Here's a number for you, 1. Just one SFO is all that it will take for the project to unravel ingloriously.
ReplyDeletePlease don't get me wrong I wish Mr Timpson all the best even though I am amongst the cohort of prisoners he feels are undeserving support and I'm sure all sex offenders will be excluded from his project. He's going to need all the luck he can get.
sox
I watch TV Sunday politics. These fucking Tories all saying their good Tories chums have lost their jobs. No they haven't they came to the end of the contracted period. They did not lose their jobs. They are entitled thinkers and that's why they are not elected .
ReplyDeleteTimpson gets a seat in the Lords to apply his father's business model to HMPpS. Quid pro quo and novelty appointments are not necessarily a good basis for success. Let’s not forget privatisation of prisons and probation services started with a Labour government.
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteThe Tories gave us Grayling and Truss if we are talking about novelty appointments.
DeleteFrom Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"For the first time in a long time we have a minister who actually knows what probation does and appears to want probation to have a leading role not just as the understory the prison service. I am the most hopeful I have been in a long time."
this means nothing for probation, those not getting custody will be getting community/suspended sentence orders so we will still be swamped.
ReplyDeleteLets have a little less negativity here. Timpson appointment is clever and strategic. Of course he wont fix things overnight but blimey what a signal that appointment sends. This is supposed to be a thoughtful and reflective interactive blog. What would you want to see , as Probation Staff and our "clients", in the first 100 days and thereafter? Id like the new minister to insist on being called the minister for Probation and Prisons (in that order). I'd like to see HMPPS disbanded and Probation localised: that will take legislation so a slower burn, but signalling this would be good. I'm hoping for consistent positive progressive messaging about rehabilitation and diversion from custody. (off to a good start)
ReplyDeleteI am feeling optimistic, like things really are going to get better, and at the same time thinking some intelligent lobbying is required.
Not least, if Probation is to be re-established as a key profession with a major part to play in all this, it needs to be a Profession, quality qualifying training, and the wages that keep you there for life
Wishful thinking.
DeleteI doubt probation will be a priority and much of it’s community rehabilitation services will probably be handed to the private and voluntary sector.
Localisation could be a problem too as it’ll shave off parts of probation responsibility to the police and social services, leaving not much left.
Alphabetically prisons comes before probation.
when all starts to improve, never forget those who colluded with the mass lies & deceptions of noms/hmpps to facilitate & expedite TR, post-TR, "reunification" & the shafting most staff have had to endure. Do not allow them to rewrite history again. Never let them forget which side they were on when the shit was hitting the fan, i.e. they were holding the fan & dishing out the shit.
ReplyDeleteA start for the new Lordship is a public acknowledgment that his title is not Prisons minister but Minister of Prisons, probation and parole!!
ReplyDeleteI think before we get excited, its worth remembering some of the following;
ReplyDelete+Bringing your passport to the polling station was just a taster. Good way of keeping the poor out of politics and out of society. More moves toward a police state.
+Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor who is leading a task force to advise Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, on how to unlock billions of pounds of private investment, will deliver his review on Tuesday. It is expected to conclude that more than £3 of private investment can be raised for every pound of public investment. In other words: more corporate looting of the state.
+Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, will remain the “strategic lead” on contentious workers’ rights reforms, but the policy will sit within the business department, administered by Reeves’s close ally Jonathan Reynolds. “The most business friendly government ever”!
+Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary, is to return to government to advise on the NHS. Milburn is a great PFI NHS privatiser. He is bought and paid for by the private health lobby.
+Jacqui Smith, the former home secretary and Strictly Come Dancing competitor, has been given a peerage and appointed as an education minister. Douglas Alexander, a former transport secretary who has returned as a Labour MP, has been made a business minister in Starmer’s latest round of appointments to his frontbench. A minister who helped Brown push forward his austerity package. Another champion of PFI.
+David Lammy, the new foreign secretary, has made his first overseas trip to meet his counterpart in Berlin. Germany’s foreign office said: “We are working with the new UK government to see how the UK can move closer to the EU.” Lammy has made it abundantly clear he is a NATO hawk, stands with Israel and backs the genocide in Gaza and will bring all the worst elements of his former tory counterparts, Blair and Brown to the table.
This is the sort of stuff we mean when some of us talk about Labour being the same as Tory, but what this blogs author asserts is either "all academic" or "nonsense", but can't ever back up.