Pat McFadden has vowed to bring about “radical” civil service changes including digitisation and stricter performance targets for officials to mirror private sector practices. Under the plans expected to be announced this week, under-performing officials could be incentivised to leave their jobs and senior officials will have their pay linked to performance.
This blog:-
"Dame Antonia Romeo will be leaving the Ministry of Justice as Permanent Secretary to become new Home Office Permanent Secretary. We would like to thank Antonia for her outstanding leadership over 4 years at the MoJ. Amy Rees, currently Director General, Chief Executive HMPPS, will be interim Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, while a permanent replacement is recruited.”
This from Civil Service World:-
Think tank calls for ‘clear-out’ of MoJ and HMPPS leadership
Current bosses ‘not up to task’ of delivering transformation required, Policy Exchange claims
Think tank Policy Exchange has called for the senior leadership of the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service to be removed as part of proposals for a reboot of the criminal justice system.
The right-leaning organisation is calling for a £5bn-a-year boost in spending on prisons, courts and policing as part of a whole-system crime reduction drive. Its proposals include the delivery of an additional 53,000 prison places – more than double the planned increase to deal with the current prisons capacity crisis.
However, the report argues that the current leadership of MoJ and HMPPS are “simply inadequate to the task” of overseeing the implementation of its plans and “should be dismissed entirely” from the civil service.
Policy Exchange says MoJ and HMPPS need “a cadre of leaders who will focus on empowering governors to run their establishments effectively” and on holding them to account alongside publicly-available performance measures.
Report authors Roger Bootle, David Spencer, Ben Sweetman, and James Vitali said there was a need to “entrench greater accountability” among civil servants in the criminal justice system.
“There are undoubtedly large numbers of individuals who work hard, demonstrate remarkable courage and deliver to the highest standards for the public," they said. “For too long, however, there has been a culture of impunity for failure, a lack of strategic prioritisation, a degree of mission creep, and a corresponding decline in the ability of the police, prisons and probation services to discharge their core duties effectively."
The report authors said the current leadership of MoJ and HMPPS had “overseen a culture of micro-management and bureaucratic expansion which has done little to improve the condition of prisons or the safety of the public”.
“This can be particularly observed in the dramatic expansion in the size of the Ministry of Justice and HMPPS bureaucracies – where huge increases in those working in non-operational roles in the five years between 2018 and 2023 have been the norm,” they said. “This trend contrasts with pitiful increases in the number of operational staff actually working and leading people on the prison and probation frontline.”
Policy Exchange estimates the impact of crime on UK society to be £250bn a year – made up of £170bn in “tangible costs”, such as losses to individuals, business and the public sector, plus an additional £80bn in “intangible effects” resulting from the fear of crime.
It said police-recorded shoplifting was up 51% relative to 2015 and police-recorded robberies and knife crime offences were up 64% and 89% respectively over the same period, while the cost of fraud in the benefits system has increased “almost eightfold” since 2006.
Policy Exchange said such areas of “acute growth” were “obscured by the aggregate downtrend in crime since 1995 that the Crime Survey of England and Wales reports.
The think tank praised the new Labour government’s inclusion of halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police among its five core “missions”. But it said prime minister Keir Starmer should go further by “explicitly rejecting the permissive approach to crime that successive governments have allowed to develop”.
In addition to calling for a change of leadership at MoJ and HMPPS, and a dramatic expansion of the prison estate, Policy Exchange is also proposing sentencing and courts reforms, and “smarter” policing.
The recommendations include minimum two-year custodial sentences for what the think tank describes as “hyper prolific offenders” and for those criminals to be the subject of mandatory individual intervention plans for the duration of their time in prison. It said the plans could cover treatment for drug addition, education or skills tuition, depending on their needs.
Policy Exchange is also calling for the amendment of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and the UK Borders Act 2007 to allow foreign nationals convicted of criminal offences to be deported immediately at the end of their sentence.
In an introduction to the report, former home secretary Sir Sajid Javid described Policy Exchange’s work as “excellent”.
Robert Eagleton, national officer for the FDA union, took a different tack. He said the think tank's suggestion that senior leadership at MoJ and HMPPS should be sacked was “not credible”. “Policy Exchange is championing an unserious proposal to address a serious problem,” he said.
“Crime has a detrimental impact on the British public as well as the economy, and we need a serious conversation about law enforcement and the funding it receives. Successive governments have failed to invest in the prison estate and the issues we see today are a direct result of years of underfunding. These are political decisions which require political will to resolve.
“The government would be better served drawing on the experience and expertise of staff working in MoJ and HMPPS, who have first-hand experience of the huge challenges facing the justice system.”
Home Office minister Dame Diana Johnson listed a range of current initiatives aimed at reducing crime.
“In the next decade, this government plans to halve violence against women and girls and knife crime, and restore public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system, as part of the Safer Streets Mission,” she said.
“Through the Plan for Change, we will also bring visible policing back to communities, with 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and specials. Alongside this, the government will build 14,000 more prison places by 2031 to lock up dangerous offenders.”
The Home Office added that a £5m investment will fund the deployment of specialist staff to speed up the removal of foreign national offenders. The programme, which is creating 82 roles to oversee removals from jails, is due to be fully operational by the start of next month.
Civil Service World sought a response from the MoJ on Policy Exchange's proposals. It had not provided one at the time of publication. This story was updated at 15:10 on 4 March 2025 to include a Home Office response
Think tank calls for ‘clear-out’ of MoJ and HMPPS leadership
Current bosses ‘not up to task’ of delivering transformation required, Policy Exchange claims
Think tank Policy Exchange has called for the senior leadership of the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service to be removed as part of proposals for a reboot of the criminal justice system.
The right-leaning organisation is calling for a £5bn-a-year boost in spending on prisons, courts and policing as part of a whole-system crime reduction drive. Its proposals include the delivery of an additional 53,000 prison places – more than double the planned increase to deal with the current prisons capacity crisis.
However, the report argues that the current leadership of MoJ and HMPPS are “simply inadequate to the task” of overseeing the implementation of its plans and “should be dismissed entirely” from the civil service.
Policy Exchange says MoJ and HMPPS need “a cadre of leaders who will focus on empowering governors to run their establishments effectively” and on holding them to account alongside publicly-available performance measures.
Report authors Roger Bootle, David Spencer, Ben Sweetman, and James Vitali said there was a need to “entrench greater accountability” among civil servants in the criminal justice system.
“There are undoubtedly large numbers of individuals who work hard, demonstrate remarkable courage and deliver to the highest standards for the public," they said. “For too long, however, there has been a culture of impunity for failure, a lack of strategic prioritisation, a degree of mission creep, and a corresponding decline in the ability of the police, prisons and probation services to discharge their core duties effectively."
The report authors said the current leadership of MoJ and HMPPS had “overseen a culture of micro-management and bureaucratic expansion which has done little to improve the condition of prisons or the safety of the public”.
“This can be particularly observed in the dramatic expansion in the size of the Ministry of Justice and HMPPS bureaucracies – where huge increases in those working in non-operational roles in the five years between 2018 and 2023 have been the norm,” they said. “This trend contrasts with pitiful increases in the number of operational staff actually working and leading people on the prison and probation frontline.”
Policy Exchange estimates the impact of crime on UK society to be £250bn a year – made up of £170bn in “tangible costs”, such as losses to individuals, business and the public sector, plus an additional £80bn in “intangible effects” resulting from the fear of crime.
It said police-recorded shoplifting was up 51% relative to 2015 and police-recorded robberies and knife crime offences were up 64% and 89% respectively over the same period, while the cost of fraud in the benefits system has increased “almost eightfold” since 2006.
Policy Exchange said such areas of “acute growth” were “obscured by the aggregate downtrend in crime since 1995 that the Crime Survey of England and Wales reports.
The think tank praised the new Labour government’s inclusion of halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police among its five core “missions”. But it said prime minister Keir Starmer should go further by “explicitly rejecting the permissive approach to crime that successive governments have allowed to develop”.
In addition to calling for a change of leadership at MoJ and HMPPS, and a dramatic expansion of the prison estate, Policy Exchange is also proposing sentencing and courts reforms, and “smarter” policing.
The recommendations include minimum two-year custodial sentences for what the think tank describes as “hyper prolific offenders” and for those criminals to be the subject of mandatory individual intervention plans for the duration of their time in prison. It said the plans could cover treatment for drug addition, education or skills tuition, depending on their needs.
Policy Exchange is also calling for the amendment of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 and the UK Borders Act 2007 to allow foreign nationals convicted of criminal offences to be deported immediately at the end of their sentence.
In an introduction to the report, former home secretary Sir Sajid Javid described Policy Exchange’s work as “excellent”.
Robert Eagleton, national officer for the FDA union, took a different tack. He said the think tank's suggestion that senior leadership at MoJ and HMPPS should be sacked was “not credible”. “Policy Exchange is championing an unserious proposal to address a serious problem,” he said.
“Crime has a detrimental impact on the British public as well as the economy, and we need a serious conversation about law enforcement and the funding it receives. Successive governments have failed to invest in the prison estate and the issues we see today are a direct result of years of underfunding. These are political decisions which require political will to resolve.
“The government would be better served drawing on the experience and expertise of staff working in MoJ and HMPPS, who have first-hand experience of the huge challenges facing the justice system.”
Home Office minister Dame Diana Johnson listed a range of current initiatives aimed at reducing crime.
“In the next decade, this government plans to halve violence against women and girls and knife crime, and restore public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system, as part of the Safer Streets Mission,” she said.
“Through the Plan for Change, we will also bring visible policing back to communities, with 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and specials. Alongside this, the government will build 14,000 more prison places by 2031 to lock up dangerous offenders.”
The Home Office added that a £5m investment will fund the deployment of specialist staff to speed up the removal of foreign national offenders. The programme, which is creating 82 roles to oversee removals from jails, is due to be fully operational by the start of next month.
Civil Service World sought a response from the MoJ on Policy Exchange's proposals. It had not provided one at the time of publication. This story was updated at 15:10 on 4 March 2025 to include a Home Office response
I said someone may be jumping before they were pushed.....
ReplyDeletehttps://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/antonia-romeo-appointed-home-office-perm-sec
ReplyDeleteAnnouncing her appointment, home secretary Yvette Cooper said Romeo has “huge experience delivering transformation across a range of government departments, as well as a track record of delivery and strong systems leadership..."
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
"Cabinet secretary Sir Chris Wormald said Romeo is “an exceptional public servant who embodies the very best of the civil service”... Romeo said it is a "huge privilege to be appointed to lead the brilliant team of civil servants charged with keeping the country safe and secure"... She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath – which recognises the work of senior military officials and civil servants – in the King's Birthday Honours last year... "
Deletehttps://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/07/Counter-Terrorism-joint-thematic-inspection-report-by-HM-Inspectorate-of-Probation-and-HMICFRS-and-HMIP.pdf
"As part of the Pathfinder process, there was a swift assessment of terrorist offending related
behaviour and mindset early in prisoners’ sentences. Interventions were generally offered swiftly. However, structured risk assessments, namely ERG and the Pathfinder Guidance Framework, were not routinely incorporated into OASys assessments within custody, with POMs indicating they often did not have access to these. This is not acceptable, as it directly impacts on the ability to assess a case and the intervention needs, taking all behaviour into account. The level of contact between POMs and keyworkers was generally infrequent and often cursory. Keywork was best when delivered by specialist CT officers."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63714964
"London probation services shockingly bad - inspectorate"
"Probation chief warns 97% of service already failing"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/14/prisons-full-2026-despite-early-release-thousands/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd1jxmrk11yo
https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/key-issues-parliament-2015/justice/prisoner-population/
"As of February 2015, 71 prisons (60% of the estate) were overcrowded prison population as a proportion of certified normal accommodation"
https://prisonreformtrust.org.uk/the-most-overcrowded-prisons-twice-as-likely-to-be-failing/
https://policyexchange.org.uk/about/#:~:text=Shaping%20the%20Policy%20Agenda%20since%202002
ReplyDeletePolicy Exchange’s status as the UK’s most influential think tank is widely recognised. Conservative Home has declared that “If anyone was to draw up a list of the top twenty most influential think tanks in Westminster, can anyone seriously doubt that Policy Exchange would be at number one?”
Many alumni and past associates of Policy Exchange are now members of Parliament or hold key advisory positions in Government. However, Policy Exchange’s influence extends across party divides. Ideas from at least 24 papers were contained in the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green 2019 manifestos – from social care to education, farming to judicial power.
https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/24991892.cumbria-police-last-year-monitoring-900-sex-offenders/
ReplyDelete“As part of the management of these individuals, each offender is assigned a dedicated Offender Manager (OM) to ensure compliance to any requirements needing to be upheld by the offender.
“The OM is responsible for undertaking a nationally approved dynamic risk assessment process which considers all aspects of an offender’s life. This risk assessment is used to formulate a robust and bespoke risk management plan which is implemented.
“There are a number of management and monitoring tools in place to assist police in managing offenders in the community, including innovative digital resources and techniques such as polygraph testing.
“Managing offenders in the community is a multi-agency process, and all sex offenders in Cumbria are managed through ‘Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements’ - a process involving police, probation and prison services working together with other agencies.
“They assess and manage violent and sexual offenders to protect the public.
“It’s a system of sharing information and combining resources to maximise the risk management in place for each individual offender.
“Cumbria Police take breaches of any restrictions or prohibitions extremely seriously and where offenders do break any conditions of court requirements, we will take appropriate action and put the offender back before the courts.”
https://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/antonia-romeo-appointed-home-office-perm-sec
ReplyDeleteA painful last paragraph suggesting any success at moj this woman is just career machine raking too much public money with low level empathy if at all.
09.57, Mrs. Romeo doesn’t just rake in public money, she also has a much reported reputation for frivolous spending of it.
ReplyDeleteOn herself you mean or long lunches and the collegiate orchestra.
Deletehttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8537319/Woman-tipped-No10-job-bullying-row-Claims-diplomat-loved-mix-stars.html
DeleteYesterday we have the probation changing of the guard and associated guff with an All Call that ends after 5pm. Today COM probation, the poor stepchild of the HMPPS (our 'P' is silent), now headmastered by a basket case of a prison system, is told that HDC is being extended from 180 days to 365 all to help the prison service. Why wasn't this mentioned yesterday and why is it buried like bad news on Friday afternoon? Contemptible and cowardly behaviour from so called leaders. They really don't like is, including 'cuddly' Mr Timpson. When people show who they really are, believe them.
ReplyDeleteJim have you seen the napo blog?
ReplyDeleteNo, not a member.
Delete
DeleteHMPPS has finally admitted that there is a deep and serious crisis in the Probation Service that bears out everything we have been saying in our Operation Protect campaign, launched back in June 2023.
On the basis of information provided to the unions under confidential cover, and which we are not able to disclose at present, HMPPS now accepts that it is thousands of staff short of the workforce it needs to meet existing sentence management demand.
This public acknowledgment of the depth and seriousness of the crisis only relates to sentence management, we expect to receive more information soon about other areas of probation delivery. Until we receive this further information, we don’t know whether the situation is going to be very different outside of sentence management. What we do know is that our members in other areas of probation delivery are struggling with their own workload pressures.
TOTALLY UNMANAGEABLE WORKLOADS
So now it’s official - sentence management staff have been expected to work for years to deliver totally unmanageable workloads. This obviously did not start yesterday.
It is no wonder that staff are suffering burn-out, work related stress and ill-health. And no surprise that successive HMIP reports have identified weakness in the Probation Service’s ability to provide its statutory services.
We note that HMPPS has listened to our Operation Protect Campaign and now accepts what our members and the unions have been saying for years – that there is a workload crisis in Probation and something needs to be done about it!
WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR
Given just how extreme the workload crisis really is, the unions are now calling for the following:
An immediate and complete end of Post Sentence Supervision, via emergency legislation if necessary
A preview of the business case being made by HMPPS to the Spending Review to reassure our members that serious new money is being sought as part of a probation rescue package
That employer acknowledges that the WMT is no longer an accurate reflection of workloads as it does not count the full extent of work undertaken and should not be used as such.
Agreement on the total number of cases that can be held at any given time by a practitioner - to be jointly reviewed on a quarterly basis
The suspension of capability proceedings against staff where excessive workload is a factor
The suspension of all Sickness Absence Management proceedings against staff and the application of total management discretion
An immediate review of the current nationally agreed overtime arrangements with a view to an indefinite extension.
An immediate review of the Prioritisation Framework with all Probation Regions moving to ‘Red’ status
Urgent agreement between HMPPS and the trade unions on a new Demand Management Strategy to support all staff in making decisions on prioritising work on individual caseloads.
A moratorium on the introduction of any new work anywhere in the Probation Service pending agreement to a rescue package for the service
Performance targets to take second place to staff welfare
Negotiation on the role of AI in contributing to the easement of the capacity crisis and the need for a collective agreement to cover the same
PROBATION SAFE IN HMPPS HANDS?
HMPPS, and before it NOMS, has been responsible for running probation ever since Chris Grayling first centralised delivery with the creation of the National Probation Service in 2014. Nearly 11 years on, and the probation workloads crisis is the worst that it has ever been. We therefore call on the Government to deliver on its manifesto promise to review the governance of probation as a matter of urgency.
MEMBER BRIEFINGS
As part of the joint unions’ on-going Operation Protect Campaign we are planning urgent on-line meetings for members to come together to discuss the deepening workloads crisis and what we want doing about it. Please look out for details of these meetings
I guess this:-
DeleteHMPPS has finally admitted that there is a deep and serious crisis in the Probation Service that bears out everything we have been saying in our Operation Protect campaign, launched back in June 2023.
On the basis of information provided to the unions under confidential cover, and which we are not able to disclose at present, HMPPS now accepts that it is thousands of staff short of the workforce it needs to meet existing sentence management demand.
This public acknowledgment of the depth and seriousness of the crisis only relates to sentence management, we expect to receive more information soon about other areas of probation delivery. Until we receive this further information, we don’t know whether the situation is going to be very different outside of sentence management. What we do know is that our members in other areas of probation delivery are struggling with their own workload pressures.
TOTALLY UNMANAGEABLE WORKLOADS
So now it’s official - sentence management staff have been expected to work for years to deliver totally unmanageable workloads. This obviously did not start yesterday.
It is no wonder that staff are suffering burn-out, work related stress and ill-health. And no surprise that successive HMIP reports have identified weakness in the Probation Service’s ability to provide its statutory services.
We note that HMPPS has listened to our Operation Protect Campaign and now accepts what our members and the unions have been saying for years – that there is a workload crisis in Probation and something needs to be done about it!
WHAT WE ARE CALLING FOR
Given just how extreme the workload crisis really is, the unions are now calling for the following:
An immediate and complete end of Post Sentence Supervision, via emergency legislation if necessary
A preview of the business case being made by HMPPS to the Spending Review to reassure our members that serious new money is being sought as part of a probation rescue package
That employer acknowledges that the WMT is no longer an accurate reflection of workloads as it does not count the full extent of work undertaken and should not be used as such.
Agreement on the total number of cases that can be held at any given time by a practitioner - to be jointly reviewed on a quarterly basis
The suspension of capability proceedings against staff where excessive workload is a factor
The suspension of all Sickness Absence Management proceedings against staff and the application of total management discretion
An immediate review of the current nationally agreed overtime arrangements with a view to an indefinite extension.
An immediate review of the Prioritisation Framework with all Probation Regions moving to ‘Red’ status
Urgent agreement between HMPPS and the trade unions on a new Demand Management Strategy to support all staff in making decisions on prioritising work on individual caseloads.
A moratorium on the introduction of any new work anywhere in the Probation Service pending agreement to a rescue package for the service
Performance targets to take second place to staff welfare
Negotiation on the role of AI in contributing to the easement of the capacity crisis and the need for a collective agreement to cover the same
PROBATION SAFE IN HMPPS HANDS?
HMPPS, and before it NOMS, has been responsible for running probation ever since Chris Grayling first centralised delivery with the creation of the National Probation Service in 2014. Nearly 11 years on, and the probation workloads crisis is the worst that it has ever been. We therefore call on the Government to deliver on its manifesto promise to review the governance of probation as a matter of urgency.
MEMBER BRIEFINGS
As part of the joint unions’ on-going Operation Protect Campaign we are planning urgent on-line meetings for members to come together to discuss the deepening workloads crisis and what we want doing about it. Please look out for details of these meetings.