tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post3417530864460168001..comments2024-03-28T23:10:52.046+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: RARs - A History Lesson Part TwoJim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-18754413319674555822017-02-26T20:39:20.267+00:002017-02-26T20:39:20.267+00:00Unpaid Work now totally unethical.Priority is find...Unpaid Work now totally unethical.Priority is finding work that will bring in money per day.To be used towards the reduction in 're-offending.Yes right, I believe you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-80367790249690273292017-02-26T14:59:26.430+00:002017-02-26T14:59:26.430+00:00Unfortunately we are surrounded by people ( gov , ...Unfortunately we are surrounded by people ( gov , management, Judges ) that are Narcissists with fragile egos , who are not willing to stand up and be counted and actually admit that TR is a total train wreck and that we need to get back to doing the job we were actually doing well before all this shoite in protecting the public and reducing re offending.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-31937972927332850852017-02-26T12:13:42.582+00:002017-02-26T12:13:42.582+00:00Liz and Mark - too wrapped up in their own self im...Liz and Mark - too wrapped up in their own self importance to have considered the consequences of their great idea. No reports, no interventions, more private companies unethically lining their pockets through electronic tags, and unpaid work; more failure, more jail, and a reduction in Public sector and compassionate justice. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-21748194709618879042017-02-25T18:07:58.806+00:002017-02-25T18:07:58.806+00:00Checking complete and I was right. The basic annua...Checking complete and I was right. The basic annual salary for an MP was increased from £67,060 to £74,000 on 31 July 2015, backdated to 8 May 2015. From 1 April 2016 MPs received a 1.3% rise putting their basic at £74,962. Now they're due a further 1.4% (calculated on the £74,962 figure of course) putting their starting salary at £76,011. That's a £9,000 increase in two years, but with no reduction in expenses or allowances and they retain a generous final salary pension scheme.<br /><br />To be fair to their Lordships, if they feel they aren't pulling their weight they can opt to claim the semi-skimmed £150 daily allowance - which has a far lighter impact upon the public purse, of course, i.e. only a mere £750 a week as compared to the full-fat £1,500 a week.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-52677710649959632732017-02-25T17:37:56.872+00:002017-02-25T17:37:56.872+00:00"We're all in it together" Cameron S..."We're all in it together" Cameron Swineshagger showed Tearjerker May how to do it properly. Thus from The Guardian:<br /><br />"David Cameron gave some of his special advisers bumper pay rises just months before they were given generous severance packages, it has been reported.<br />The former prime minister upped the salary of some of his advisers by as much as £18,000 – or up to 24%, according to an analysis by Civil Service World."<br /><br />And our MPs' favourite regulatory body IPSA, which now legitimises their eyewatering expense claims, is pressing ahead with yet another MP salary rise in excess of the payfreeze for public sector staff until 2020. I need to check but I reckon this is the third increase for MPs since the public sector freeze - the first being 10%, then 1% a year later, now 1.4%. The greedy bastards are still claiming £££'s in expenses as well, despite the argument for the 10% increase being to drastically reduce the need for expense claims. And a fair few of their Lordships are enjoying £300 daily just for signing-in. But there's always money for HS2, new nuclear, outsourcing, pointless court hearings, bonuses & payrises for SENIOR civil servants & SpAds, etc.<br /><br />Well spotted Getafix.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-54688665473730642072017-02-25T16:56:05.201+00:002017-02-25T16:56:05.201+00:00Remember that heartwarming, tearjerking speech of ...Remember that heartwarming, tearjerking speech of 13 July 2016?<br /><br />"... When we take the big calls, we’ll think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws, we’ll listen not to the mighty but to you. When it comes to taxes, we’ll prioritise not the wealthy, but you. When it comes to opportunity, we won’t entrench the advantages of the fortunate few..."<br /><br />Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fucking pisstakers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-42680370860327099642017-02-25T16:18:02.891+00:002017-02-25T16:18:02.891+00:00Am I right in thinking that making it an allowance...Am I right in thinking that making it an allowance also makes it tax free? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-18969742751774020932017-02-25T16:03:36.434+00:002017-02-25T16:03:36.434+00:00Some of the country’s most senior judges have been...Some of the country’s most senior judges have been awarded sweeping pay rises of 11 per cent in a deal quietly approved by ministers, it was revealed yesterday.<br /><br />The salary hikes, which follow a loud and public campaign by leading judicial figures, will add nearly £20,000 to the pay of a High Court judge this year, and more than £22,500 to that of an Appeal judge.<br /><br />They have been granted by Justice Secretary Liz Truss despite a continuing pay cap for other public sector workers which means that most are held down to rises of 1 per cent a year.<br /><br />The decision to give some of the highest-ranking judges a pay boost was said by Miss Truss’s officials to be ‘necessary to make sure we attract the very brightest talent and help stop our exceptional judges from leaving early.’<br /><br />But critics questioned the evidence that judges are quitting the bench and said the judiciary has been singled out for special favours that should not have been granted.<br /><br />Those who have been pressing for more pay include the country’s most senior judge, Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, who published a survey two weeks ago in which the most senior judges agreed their £200,000-plus salaries are ‘not reasonable’.<br /><br />Lord Thomas said that judges could not make as much money as barristers, from whose ranks most judges are drawn, and who in some cases earn millions in a year.<br /><br />‘In the light of the substantially greater remuneration available to the most able practitioners in private practice, these matters are vital to our ability to attract candidates and retain judges of the highest calibre,’ the Lord Chief Justice said. Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court, also joined the chorus of complaint.<br />Lord Neuberger, who earlier this month declared that some press criticism was ‘undermining the judiciary for no good reason’, said in a speech this week that ‘there is no doubt that the heavy workload of a judge coupled with the increasing gap between judicial pay and the rewards of successful private practice means that appointment to the High Court is significantly less attractive than it was.’#<br /><br />The pay rises have been styled by Miss Truss as a ‘temporary recruitment and retention allowance.’ <br />They will go to an unknown number of the 25 Appeal Court judges and 100-plus High Court judges who are calculated to have lost out in reforms of the judicial pension scheme pushed through by David Cameron’s government in 2015.<br /><br />Other public sector workers have seen their pensions made less generous in recent years as ministers have tried to reduce high and rising costs to the taxpayer, and very few private sector employees have escaped major pension reductions over the past decade.<br /><br />But only judges have won any compensation for reductions to their pensions. Last autumn more than 200 judges took their pension complaints to an employment tribunal, with some represented by the controversial law firm Leigh Day, where a founder and another partner face misconduct charges over discredited claims of abuse by British troops in Iraq. An employment judge ruled in January that the reforms discriminated against younger judges.<br /><br />Miss Truss’ pay hikes will apply to judges who were affected by the pension changes, including those appointed to judicial posts since April 2012, or those who were in their jobs in April 2012 but aged under 51 years and six months at the time.<br /><br />High Court judges are now on £179,768, so with the new £19,774 allowance’ those who qualify will earn £199,542 this year. Court of Appeal judges get £204,695, so with the temporary allowance of £22,516 and they will if they meet the right criteria get £227,211 this year.<br /><br />The allowances will be paid up to June next year, when the Senior Salaries Review Board will publish a review of judicial pay, which is widely expected to be sympathetic to the judges’ claims.Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-6947841145991251442017-02-25T15:55:41.885+00:002017-02-25T15:55:41.885+00:00I think the sentencers have been heard.
I know it...I think the sentencers have been heard. <br />I know it's off topic, but it makes my blood boil. Everything's stripped back to the bone, prison budgets, public service pay, even travel expenses have been cut or abolished. There is no money, especially at the MoJ, where austerity cuts have cut deepest. <br />But Liz Truss has obviously been down the back of the sofa. But don't tell anyone. <br /><br />http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4258326/Ministers-quietly-award-senior-judges-11-pay-rises.html<br /><br />'Getafix Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-35254282334759271092017-02-25T12:04:41.385+00:002017-02-25T12:04:41.385+00:00A really good comment. And, as ever looking for th...A really good comment. And, as ever looking for the hidden agenda, it's occurring to me.... Get rid of pre-sentence assessments and who needs those superfluous Judges and Magistrates... Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-52924744926727288972017-02-25T11:46:36.809+00:002017-02-25T11:46:36.809+00:00Okay, so now what? Sentencers in both court arenas...Okay, so now what? Sentencers in both court arenas ought to be kicking up a stink about this, but are quietly complying. Jezza Wright & Grayling seem to have been the perfect tag team when it comes to fucking things up.<br /><br />Judges & magistrates - you have been hoodwinked, disarmed, humiliated & criticised during the last few years of (essentially) Tory "justice" policy. This RAR nonsense removed your access to intelligent pre-sentence information and thus left you sentencing blind & both arms tied behind your back. Alongside the equally stupid PSS the RAR has handed the power of the sentence to Grayling's chums in the private sector who, by running both community & custodial businesses, benefit all ways round. The NPS are allegedly the gatekeepers of this new procedure but, as far as I can tell, they don't have the staff - or the motivation to give a shit.<br /><br />Once over you, as sentencers, could request a detailed assessment of the defendant such that the professional, independent informed view of a Probation Officer could be considered in the context of the adversarial (& thus unforgiving) opinions from prosecution & defence. That might also include a professional opinion from a relevant specialist. At least then, as sentencers, you were handing down a sentence based upon known information.<br /><br />Now, it seems, you look at a series of tick boxes, ask a member of probation if the calculations are about right, get a nod of approval &, if I can directly quote a local court clerk who remains nameless, you "impose an order that requires someone to do stuff that has yet to be worked out, so when they come back here in breach we haven't a bloody clue what's happened."<br /><br />The politicians have neutralised the judiciary. Just look at Truss's contemptuous silence when elements of the press were lambasting the judges & inciting hatred.<br /><br />Sentencers, Rise Up and Be Heard!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-10084456873080885272017-02-25T10:43:26.740+00:002017-02-25T10:43:26.740+00:00I heard that it was Sarah Jarvis;s brainchild as s...I heard that it was Sarah Jarvis;s brainchild as she was the wonderkinder at that time but that she quickly realised that there were some serious inbuilt flaws and quietly took a backward step.....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com