Confiscation orders: progress review
Published on:There has been a greater focus on enforcing criminal confiscation orders, but there remain fundamental weaknesses in the system.
There has been a greater focus on enforcing criminal confiscation orders, but there remain fundamental weaknesses in the system.
An investigation into why and how the Ministry of Justice adjusted Community Rehabilitation Companies’ (CRCs) contracts; and the financial and other implications of the adjustments to the CRCs’ contracts.
19 December 2017
Government does not know how many people in prison have a mental illness, how much it is spending on mental health in prisons or whether it is achieving its objectives. It is therefore hard to see how Government can be achieving value for money in its efforts to improve the mental health and well being of prisoners. In 2016 there were 40,161 incidents of self-harm in prisons and 120 self-inflicted deaths.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Amyas Morse, has today qualified his opinion on the 2014-15 Accounts of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) on the grounds of regularity.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), told Parliament today that the Prison Service had secured £1 million of the expected £10.7 million increase in returns to shareholders of Fazakerley Prison Services Limited, following the refinancing of the Fazakerley prison contract let under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Further refinancings of PFI […]
Sir John Bourn, the head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that the Prison Service has made good progress in improving its procurement of goods and services but that scope exists for further financial savings to be made. Performance in monitoring and controlling the consumption of goods and use of services and […]
The introduction of new arrangements in 2000 for the funding of civil legal aid has led to better scrutiny by the Legal Services Commission of the work of its suppliers and a greater degree of control over the civil legal aid budget, according to Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office. As the […]
There was an estimated net loss of £1.1m when Just Solutions International, the commercial arm of the National Offender Management Service, set up to sell consultancy advice abroad, was closed in September 2015.
Despite some improvements in the management of court cases, around two-thirds of criminal trials do not proceed as planned on the day they are originally scheduled. Delays and aborted hearings create extra work, waste scarce resources and undermine confidence in the justice system.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that the seven operational PFI prisons are bringing benefits to the Prison Service. One of the key benefits is that the existence of PFI prisons has encouraged the public sector to improve its performance. For instance, Prison Service management teams have recently […]
The case for a huge expansion of electronic monitoring using GPS was unproven, but the Ministry of Justice pursued an overly ambitious and high risk strategy anyway. Ultimately it has not delivered.
The National Probation Service Information Systems Strategy (NPSISS) network is operating in 38 out of the 42 new local probation areas in England and Wales. Nevertheless, there were serious problems in the development of a case recording and management system, known as CRAMS, leading to its use by a minority of probation service areas. During […]
In a report to Parliament today, head of the NAO Sir John Bourn recognised that the outsourcing of the Department of Social Security’s medical assessment service had reduced costs and speeded up the turnaround of work. But the standard of medical assessments and the quality of service to benefit customers need to improve. The service […]
There is no collective understanding of what type of oversight is appropriate and cost effective for different types of arm’s length bodies.
Probation services have been restructured on time and within cost targets during a period of major change but operational problems and risks to further service transformation need to be resolved if re-offending levels are to reduce.
The Emergency Services Network is one of the most technologically advanced systems worldwide and is set to replace the existing emergency services communication system, Airwave. However several risks have been highlighted.