Khan’s £1.3m plan for victims to meet offenders helps... 10
SADIQ KHAN has been accused of wasting £1.3 million on a controversial ‘soft justice’ scheme that has resulted in just ten victims of crime meeting offenders face-to-face.
The Labour Mayor of London launched a two-year ‘restorative justice’ programme amid much fanfare soon after his 2016 election.
The project aimed to get criminals to meet their victims and apologise for subjecting them to ordeals such as muggings or burglaries.
But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that only ten offenders took part in direct meetings and fewer than 1,000 victims were referred to the Restore: Justice scheme – despite an estimated 1.5 million Londoners suffering crime over the past two years.
Susan Hall, a Conservative member of t he London Assembly, said: ‘True to form, the Mayor has splurged taxpayers’ money on this ill-conceived programme despite the fact its success has been called into question.
‘With this sort of irresponsible spending, does the Mayor really expect Londoners to believe him when he claims to be doing all he can to bring crime levels down?
‘We shouldn’t underestimate the amount of cash that the Mayor has spent on this white elephant – £1.3 million of taxpayers’ money could have put 22 more police officers on our streets to catch crooks and keep Londoners safe.’
When the project began in 2017, Mr Khan spoke of his pride that ‘all Londoners affected by crime have the chance to sit down with their offenders if they wish to’, but the results of the scheme have only now been published.
Details obtained by Tories on the London Assembly show that 988 victims were referred to the service between April 2017 and January this year. Of those, 241 took up the offer, 335 declined and in 323 cases the Restore: Justice scheme team could not make contact with the victim. Some cases are ongoing.
The Mayor insisted that direct meetings between victim and criminal were ‘only one stage in the process’, adding: ‘ The other stages include in-depth restorative conversations and facilitated communications between the victim and offender.
The vast majority of victims who take up the offer of restorative justice are content with outcomes t hat don’t r esult in a conference [meeting].’
But he admitted: ‘ There were challenges around information sharing, referral pathways, and low levels of awareness of restorative justice throughout the programme, which impacted on referral levels.’
Meanwhile, Mr Khan is facing claims of cronyism after a Labour ally was hand-picked to lead his flagship anti-knife crime scheme.
Lib Peck, Labour leader of Lambeth Council in South London, has known Mr Khan for many years and has been appointed director of the £6.8 million Violence Reduction Unit ( VRU), which aims to treat the soaring numbers of stabbings in the capital as a ‘ public health problem’ rather than a law and order issue.
Documents seen by this newspaper show that Ms Peck – who will earn £117,000 a year in her new role – sat on every meeting of the VRU Reference Group, which helped set up the unit and drew up the job description for director. When she was interviewed for the job, she knew all but one person on the panel.
Tory assembly member Ms Hall said: ‘Rather than appointing the expert policy professional required for this job, the Mayor has instead handed a six-figure salary to an old Labour ally.’
A spokesman for t he Mayor insisted: ‘She has a wealth of experience and was chosen as the best person for the job in an open, transparent and rigorous recruitment process run by independent recruitment consultants Hays, in conjunction with partner organisations and a community panel who met shortlisted candidates.’