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
There has been a greater focus on enforcing criminal confiscation orders, but there remain fundamental weaknesses in the system.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.