Excessive probation workloads put public at risk in England and Wales, union warns

Ministers are about to embark on the biggest expansion of tagging in British history – and ex-offenders will need to be overseen by probation officers. Photograph: Mark Richardson/Alamy

The public is “at direct risk” from unsupervised ex-offenders because probation officers in England and Wales are being asked to cope with excessive workloads, a union has said.

As ministers prepare to release and monitor tens of thousands more prisoners this autumn, Napo’s executive has declared for the first time that it has no confidence in managers at the probation service.