Courses for low-risk offenders cancelled to ease Probation Service pressures

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood giving a speech at London Probation Headquarters in central London (Ben Whitley/PA) - (PA Wire)

Around 13,000 offenders did not complete rehabilitation courses as part of their sentences because the Probation Service was unable to deliver them in time under an “impossible” workload, the Justice Secretary has revealed.

Shabana Mahmood said thousands of accredited programmes ordered by the courts were not fulfilled before their sentences expired in three years up to March 2024, as she announced courses for low-risk offenders will be cancelled in a bid to “confront the reality” of the pressures on the service.