John Reid is considering sweeping reforms of the criminal justice system, including putting entire local probation services out for competition.

A ‘privatisation prospectus’ drawn up by the home secretary includes plans for a five-year programme of ‘competitions’, during which £9bn worth of probation and prison services are to be offered to the private security industry and voluntary organisations.

Under the plans, half the 8,000 new prison places promised by Reid will now be provided in jails built and run by private security companies, with the rest of the extra places built within existing jails. Bids are also to be invited from the private and voluntary sectors to run prisons or local probation areas which fail a performance test or fail to deliver agreed improvements.
Reid believes that performance-testing and competition for prison contracts has already had a big effect. “I want to build and extend on this approach in a rapid and vigorous way to the probation service and raise standards there too,” he said. In the Home Office document setting out his intentions, Reid says he values the public sector and wants it to have a continuing role. “However, all current providers should be open to challenge and able to demonstrate that the services they offer are the best available. We must do all we can to get the best possible service provision.”

But the unions have made clear their concerns. “The government’s obsession with targets and privatisation is undermining frontline work with offenders,” said Harry Fletcher of the National Association of Probation Officers. “There is a real fear that fragmentation of probation will lead to less co-operation between agencies, confusion, and will lower the standards of supervision.”