Napo has campaigned for the devolution of Probation in Wales for some years now. So it is more than disappointing to hear Prisons and Probation Minister Lord Timpson, when he attended the Welsh Senedd on 14th July, flatly refusing to give consideration to the devolution of Probation in Wales. He was “ruling nothing out” but that just means the interminable long grass.
Disappointing but not wholly surprising, especially given the failure of UK Labour to come good on the manifesto promise of a review of Probation. A bit of history about the devolution proposal:
Napo Cymru gave evidence to The Thomas Commission on Justice in Wales and its report was published in in 2019. This recommended the wholesale devolution of justice to Wales. Napo was already campaigning for probation in England and Wales to be separated from the prison service and removed from civil service control; following the Thomas Report, Napo backed devolution. In December 2022, Gordon Brown’s report, A New Britain, specifically recommended the devolution of probation and youth justice to Wales. Justice Unions in Wales signed a joint statement in favour of devolution of Probation and Youth Justice, and in March 2023, Welsh Labour conference voted unanimously to endorse this plan. The Welsh Government made practical, researched evidence-based preparations. Napo Cymru worked in collaboration with the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice who published a succession of research-based work evidencing the case for a localised Welsh Probation Service.
It is important that the baby isn’t thrown out with the bath water. There were many attractions in the proposition of a devolved Welsh Probation Service, but at its core was the well-constructed and researched argument for a de-centralised Probation Service, embedded in its local community, at arm’s length from political control, accountable to, but not directly managed by, government.
Where is the review of Probation promised in the UK Labour manifesto? In the long grass along with any attention to the crisis in Probation. Minister Timpson argues that he must give priority to tackling the prison crisis. Fair enough, but he is an experienced organisational leader, and any leader worth their salt will have an eye on the mid and long term even in the midst of crisis management. Probation is not too weary of change to encompass further change, if it is not thrust upon them against their good judgment and goodwill. The promised new recruits are not going to save the day -or even stick around for very long. Probation and prisons are not (despite Lord Timpson’s assertion in Cambridge last week) one side of the same coin. The time to at least schedule a thorough review of Probation governance is now. Napo Cymru, Napo nationally, is prepared and ready to make the case for a better, healthier, socially valuable Probation Service and to offer accrued evidence from the work done towards devolution which, even if Devolution-with-a-capital-D is in the long grass, envisions a localised service. “Small-d” if you will.
Su McConnel
Napo Cymru
