Over 200 murders carried out on probation since 2014

MORE than 200 offenders under probation supervision have been convicted of murder since the system was overhauled in 2014 by the then justice secretary Chris Grayling.

They were among 1,100 offenders sentenced under what are termed serious further offences (SFOS).

Since April 2014, a further 86 people have been convicted of manslaughter and 378 of rape.

Of all those convicted of SFOS, 29 had previously served a life sentence and 28 had been held for indeterminate sentences to protect the public.

The figures give weight to criticism of the part-privatisation of the probation service in 2014, when responsibility for managing and rehabilitating offenders was split between private firms and the state.

A Commons inquiry earlier this year said the reforms made the system that supervises thousands of criminals worse, put the public at greater risk, and failed to reduce the rate of reoffending by released prisoners.

Harry Fletcher, director of the Victims’ Right Campaign, said: “This is an extraordinary rate of murders over the past four years. Critics said in 2013 that the probation reforms were very high risk and these figures show that they have proved disastrous for victims.

“The Government must ensure that trained probation officers are supervising offenders, not people working for contracted firms with little expertise.”

It is difficult to compare data with the numbers before 2014 because of the change to supervision of under-12 month sentence prisoners.

Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, is bringing probation services back under public control after criticism of the part-privatisation by not only MPS, but also chief inspectors of probation and prisons, and the National Audit Office.