tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post8558914772302820539..comments2024-03-29T06:40:58.606+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: Pick of the Week 35Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-62301965749562079512017-12-18T10:22:18.438+00:002017-12-18T10:22:18.438+00:00I was under the impression that the cuts in staffi...I was under the impression that the cuts in staffing were nearer 40%Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-17750195330321445422017-12-18T04:13:03.907+00:002017-12-18T04:13:03.907+00:00And here it is from 13/11/17
Sam Gyimah The Parli...And here it is from 13/11/17<br /><br />Sam Gyimah The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice<br />The Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) contracts do not specify that CRCs must maintain staffing numbers at a particular level. However, the contracts do contain robust provisions requiring each CRC to ensure that it employs a sufficient level of competent and appropriately trained staff. We continue to closely monitor this as part of our contract management and assurance process.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-74079994842300049372017-12-18T04:08:55.489+00:002017-12-18T04:08:55.489+00:00From HoC questions 5/12/17:
Richard Burgon Shadow...From HoC questions 5/12/17:<br /><br />Richard Burgon Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice<br />- I have repeatedly asked the Secretary of State how many staff have been axed since probation was privatised, and I have repeatedly been refused an answer. It is now being reported in the press that there was a 20% cut in the number of probation staff in the privatised community rehabilitation companies between 2015 and 2016. Can he confirm that CRC staff have been cut by a fifth?<br /><br />David Lidington The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice<br />- It is for individual community rehabilitation companies to take decisions about the staffing and what kind of staff they need to deliver on their contractual obligations to the Government. The Government’s responsibility is for staff in the national probation service, and we are recruiting additional staff to it.<br /><br />********<br />I seem to recall that Gyimah recently told us that MoJ ensured the CRCs had enough staff via Contract Management Oversight. Seems they say whatever comes into their head on any given day?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-6148257861610478982017-12-18T03:47:55.100+00:002017-12-18T03:47:55.100+00:00In Oct 2017 Lidington was before the JSC doing his...In Oct 2017 Lidington was before the JSC doing his best Grayling impersonation:<br /><br />The lord chancellor yesterday told MPs that his department intends to bring back employment tribunal fees.<br /><br />In July, the Supreme Court decided that employment tribunal fees were unlawful and should be abolished.<br /><br />However, speaking in front of the justice select committee yesterday morning, David Lidington pointed out that the judgment did not rule out charging fees entirely. “We still intend to charge fees,” he said. “I think it is necessary as a contribution to costs. It is also necessary and sensible as a deterrent to frivolous or vexatious litigation and that was something the court itself acknowledged.<br /><br />“The key lesson that I took from the judgment was that fees are… a reasonable way in which to secure a contribution towards the running costs of the courts and tribunals service but that, in setting the level of fees, the government needs to be very careful in regard to questions of access and affordability.”Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-45822075464013156442017-12-18T03:38:28.162+00:002017-12-18T03:38:28.162+00:00Lidington's been unusually busy recently, havi...Lidington's been unusually busy recently, having visited Isle of Man (to open a new bank account, perhaps?) and re-visiting the tribunal fee issue. This from CIPD (my asterisks):<br /><br />"Employment law experts have warned organisations to scrutinise their employment practices in light of today’s (14 December) figures, published by the Courts Service, which revealed that the tribunals’ outstanding caseload also rose 37 per cent after London’s Supreme Court found employment tribunal fees unlawful in July.<br /><br />Following the ruling, the Ministry of Justice “took immediate steps” to stop charging fees for tribunals, and put in place a fee refund scheme for claimants who had paid fees between 2013 and 2017, since the first introduction of such fees.<br /><br />***However, lord chancellor David Lidington confirmed during a justice select committee meeting last month that the government was still intending to charge a fee, but it needed to be careful to ensure tribunals were still accessible and affordable.***<br /><br />The number of employments tribunals brought after fees were introduced had dropped by as much as 70 per cent, meaning that claims may be gradually approaching pre-fee levels."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-81286184039142248492017-12-18T03:25:14.386+00:002017-12-18T03:25:14.386+00:00Lets see how Lidington vs. The Market turns out. F...Lets see how Lidington vs. The Market turns out. For example...<br /><br />BMW Key Fob Phone<br />Reports [are] that this key fob phone is hugely popular with UK prisoners, even though they can only text and call – that’s all they need it to do anyway. These tiny phones are easily sneaked into prisoners and used to contact people outside of the cells. If caught this can lead to two addtional years in prison. This doesn’t seem to stop them though – 7,000 handsets and SIM cards were seized in English prisons last year alone.<br /><br />Willcom WX06A<br />Just launched in Japan, the WX06A is officially the world’s smallest phone at just 32 x 70 x 10.7mm and weighing in at 32 grams. Due to the teeny tiny size of the phone it doesn’t have a camera and talk time battery is just 2 hours. But you are still able to text, make calls and send emails – it even has a fold out antenna so you can get better signal. This little phone, which comes in black, white and pink, is only available in Japan at the moment. The question is, will anyone be able to use the keys?!<br /><br />The Modu Mobile<br />Only recently beaten by the Willcom, The Modu Mobile was named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Lightest Phone until 2013. The handset weighs just over forty grams and measures a mere 72 x 37 x 7.8 mm. However, the Modu Mobile’s diminutive size doesn’t prevent it from performing most of the functions you need from a phone. It’s able to make calls, send SMS messages, play MP3s and take photos. For some of these functions you may need to use attachments, bulking up the size a little, but this phone is still a wonder of micro design.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-78966655402194752352017-12-17T18:35:32.516+00:002017-12-17T18:35:32.516+00:00It's also curious how a story about these phon...It's also curious how a story about these phones which was covered extensively by the tabloid press in early 2016, gets another moral panic going. A nice platform for Liddington to talk tough, perhaps?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-45328825538104733722017-12-17T17:49:23.611+00:002017-12-17T17:49:23.611+00:00Online retailers should ban the sale of miniature ...Online retailers should ban the sale of miniature mobile phones designed to be smuggled into prisons, the justice secretary has said. David Lidington said the devices were advertised as being able to go undetected by the body orifice security scanners used in England and Wales.<br /><br />"Beat the BOSS" phones can be bought for £25, but are reportedly changing hands for up to £500 inside jails. About 20,000 illicit phones and Sim cards were recovered by guards in 2016. Some as small as a lipstick, the mini mobiles are readily available from online marketplaces. They are marketed as being virtually metal-free and therefore able to beat the detectors anyone entering a prison must pass through.<br /><br />"It's pretty clear that these miniature phones are being advertised and sold with the purpose of being smuggled," Mr Lidington will say in a speech on Monday. "I am calling on online retailers and trading websites to take down products that are advertPresentatised to evade detection measures in prisons."<br /><br />Mobile phones, which are banned in prisons, can be used to facilitate more crime and intimidate victims from behind bars, the Ministry of Justice says. It says it has invested £2m in detection equipment, including portable detection devices, which can be used to find mobiles in prisons. It is has also acquired new powers to block specific phones from accessing communications networks.<br /><br />Mini phones are listed for sale on websites including Amazon, Gumtree and eBay. EBay said it had made the decision to stop selling them some months ago and would make sure the justice secretary was aware it was "already going above and beyond" ahead of his intervention. The firm said it would continue to manually remove any items that slip through.<br /><br />The BBC has also contacted Amazon and Gumtree for comment.<br /><br />Analysis<br /><br />Just as those of us "on the outside" can't live without our phones, in prison they have become ubiquitous, prized possessions. They are used to organise the lives of inmates intent on continuing illegal activity, be that the smuggling of contraband into prisons or ongoing criminal activities outside. Prison staff can't listen to mobile phone calls as they do legitimate calls that prisoners make to their families.<br /><br />Mini phones like those worrying the justice secretary were among the material seized from a gang recently jailed for smuggling £1m of prohibited items into jails. And they're even harder for prisons to stamp out because they can be hidden inside people's bodies - hence the need for body orifice - or BOSS - scanners.Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-17884475939670917392017-12-17T17:03:12.088+00:002017-12-17T17:03:12.088+00:00Gives a whole new meaning to 'arsehole'. L...Gives a whole new meaning to 'arsehole'. Lidlington is on a hiding to nothing here! There is nothing illegal about making making mini mobile phones! That is capitalism!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-55169912785732575362017-12-17T16:22:57.286+00:002017-12-17T16:22:57.286+00:00Care was dropped by the MoJ as incompatible with a...Care was dropped by the MoJ as incompatible with a law enforcement role Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-46861323418739291272017-12-17T15:57:42.982+00:002017-12-17T15:57:42.982+00:00Talking of privateers profiting from the justice s...Talking of privateers profiting from the justice system, it appears that mobile phone companies are making and marketing mobile phones specifically designed to make it easy to smuggle into prisons.<br />David Lidlington isn't very happy about that side of free market enterprise it seems.<br /><br />http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42383351<br /><br />'Getafix Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-35694179268165863142017-12-17T13:52:39.498+00:002017-12-17T13:52:39.498+00:00Abracadabra: DLNR CRC
https://www.gov.uk/governme...Abracadabra: DLNR CRC<br /><br />https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315721/CRC-area-map.pdf<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-24958501069090205482017-12-17T12:13:32.385+00:002017-12-17T12:13:32.385+00:00The Probation and After-Care Service, thats what i...The Probation and After-Care Service, thats what i miss.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-69399728271379568542017-12-17T11:30:09.784+00:002017-12-17T11:30:09.784+00:00A good point, made previously I suspect and I'...A good point, made previously I suspect and I'll sort out a list when I find a spare moment.Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-13846342653555274202017-12-17T11:09:53.451+00:002017-12-17T11:09:53.451+00:00I have often wondered how other parts of the Crimi...I have often wondered how other parts of the Criminal Justice System, let's not forget that public protection, reducing reoffending, rehabilitation resettlement are collective efforts not just Probation work,about privateers making profit for getting the form filling right. The other cash strapped parts must look across at the so called Rehabilitation Companies (Rehabilitation my proverbial arse!) and scratch there heads or gesticulate in other ways over their disbelief. They must say, why am I spending my precious resources, money, fixed assets and people supporting this bunch of ... I dare say that was already muttered many, many months ago in many different quarters and I think subsequently decisions have been made. How are the government going to restore confidence? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-52370137868958396912017-12-17T10:09:16.990+00:002017-12-17T10:09:16.990+00:00Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottingham & Rutla...Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottingham & Rutland and Staffordshire & West Midlands Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-35415202966701702782017-12-17T10:00:29.660+00:002017-12-17T10:00:29.660+00:00Can you specify names of CRC's rather than jus...Can you specify names of CRC's rather than just initials as most of us won't know who they are? Maybe someone could do a CRC map for Jim to post including inspectors rating. Sorry to hear about the redundancy notice. As you say it is particularly insensitive at this time of year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-88948334898638753582017-12-17T09:40:42.217+00:002017-12-17T09:40:42.217+00:00So Ingeus (RRP) have made a loss of 12.6m in 2 yea...So Ingeus (RRP) have made a loss of 12.6m in 2 years across SWM and DLNR CRC's, been given a bung of 36m up until 2021 and still have proceeded in giving 50% of all back office staff a 90 day redundancy notice just before Christmas. What is going on? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com