Probation service faces 'meltdown'

The Government's anti-crime strategy faces being knocked off course by a funding crisis which frontline staff say could cause "meltdown" in London's probation service.

Unions say the London Probation Area (LPA) has warned of a shortfall of around £8 million from its £87 million budget for this year. Managers have been told to freeze recruitment, lose temporary staff and cut overtime. Staff claim directors are looking at service cuts and up to 220 redundancies if the Government does find more cash for next month's spending review.

Staff fear cuts will harm efforts to deal swiftly with young criminals and combat reoffending, while supervision of community sentences, and of people coming out of prison - including juveniles and sex offenders - could be hampered.

All that would be a major blow for a Government anxious to see courts send fewer people to jails suffering record overcrowding.

Harry Fletcher of probation officers' union NAPO said: "The London service faces meltdown unless the Home Office puts the money up. The cuts contemplated will seriously damage performance and put protection of the public in doubt."

LPA chief officer Jon Rowls has written to the National Probation Service about the issue. He said priorities like street crime and high-risk offenders would not be starved of cash.