More community sentences in England and Wales could be ‘catastrophic’, warns watchdog
Plans to allow thousands more criminals in England and Wales to serve their sentence in the community risk “catastrophic consequences” unless the Probation Service is overhauled, a watchdog has told the Guardian.Martin Jones, HM chief inspector of probation, said government plans to hand responsibility for overseeing offenders from prisons to probation officers meant the risk “is carried directly into the community”.He called for extra funds, greater staff numbers, a slashing of red tape and better retention of experienced staff, saying that “any response to simply shift demand from prison to probation will be ineffective at best, and dangerous at worst”.His comments come as Shabana Mahmood prepares to announce an overhaul of criminal justice on Thursday after the publication of an independent review carried out by David Gauke, a former Conservative justice secretary.Judges and magistrates in England and Wales will be told to move away from handing out short custodial sentences in favour of community based alternatives, increasing pressure on the probation service.
Tens of thousands of criminals are expected to be tagged and overseen by probation officers in the community instead of being kept in jail,In comments before Gauke’s formal announcement on Thursday morning, Jones said: “Tomorrow’s independent sentencing review has the opportunity to set out proposals to rebalance our criminal justice system, ensure those who commit crimes are properly punished, and keep our communities safe – this opportunity must be seized,“However, if any reforms are to succeed, they must follow urgent improvements to tackle ongoing failings within the Probation Service, which remains under immense pressure,Too few staff, with too little experience, managing too many cases, means inspections routinely reveal significant deficits in work to protect the public, and missed opportunities to tackle reoffending,The clock is ticking to address these issues, and we have seen no evidence of improvement.
”Jones, a former chief executive of the Parole Board, said government plans will expose the public to greater risk.“My concern as chief inspector is that probation’s risk, unlike prisons, is carried directly in the community, which means avoidable mistakes can have catastrophic consequences.Therefore, any response to simply shift demand from prison to probation will be ineffective at best, and dangerous at worst.”The government must pile more resources in so there are more staff, with more experience, and with better services to tackle the underlying causes of offending, he said.“Detailed attention needs to be paid to ensuring the Probation Service has the capacity to cope with the work required, and the expertise and funding to ensure better delivery, interventions, and outcomes,” he said.
Ministers must also cut through red tape and form-filling for probation officers if they are to spend more time monitoring dangerous criminals, he said.“The Probation Service will need to work much more closely and effectively with the police and other agencies to protect the public from harm.Our inspections find that complicated and ineffective systems too often prevent probation officers from communicating and sharing information about risk effectively,” he said.Gauke’s recommendations are expected to include allowing prisoners to earn their freedom after serving a third of their sentences under new minimum and maximum sentence plans.He will also say that magistrates should be encouraged to defer sentencing for some offenders for up to 12 months, instead of the current six, and encourage wider use of deferred sentences for pregnant women or those with substance dependencies.
Reports this week claimed that the government had ordered tens of thousands of extra tags, which will be used to monitor offenders in the community.Gauke will call for suspended sentences to be made available for custodial sentences of up to three years, instead of the current two.Projections have shown that prisons are on course to run out of space by November.The subheading on this article was amended on 22 May 2025.Owing to an editing error, Martin Jones was wrongly described as the head of the Probation Service.
His correct job title is HM chief inspector of probation.
Elon Musk claims he will step back from political donations in near future
Elon Musk claimed on Tuesday that he would decrease the amount of money he spends on politics for the foreseeable future. If true, the reduction would represent a significant turnaround after the world’s richest person positioned himself as the Republican party’s most enthusiastic donor over the last year.“I think, in terms of political spending, I’m going to do a lot less in the future,” Musk said during a video interview with Bloomberg News at the Qatar Economic Forum.Bloomberg’s Mishal Husain asked the Tesla CEO if he had decided how much to spend on midterm elections, which elicited Musk’s response. When asked why he was pulling back, Musk said flatly: “I think I’ve done enough” – drawing laughs from the audience, although it was unclear if he was joking
Almost half of young people would prefer a world without internet, UK study finds
Almost half of young people would rather live in a world where the internet does not exist, according to a new survey.The research reveals that nearly 70% of 16- to 21-year-olds feel worse about themselves after spending time on social media. Half (50%) would support a “digital curfew” that would restrict their access to certain apps and sites past 10pm, while 46% said they would rather be young in a world without the internet altogether.A quarter of respondents spent four or more hours a day on social media, while 42% of those surveyed admitted to lying to their parents and guardians about what they do online.While online, 42% said they had lied about their age, 40% admitted to having a decoy or “burner” account, and 27% said they pretended to be a different person completely
Microsoft employee interrupts CEO’s keynote with pro-Palestinian protest
A Microsoft employee disrupted a keynote speech by the company’s chief executive with a pro-Palestinian protest at the company’s annual developer conference on Monday.Joe Lopez, a Microsoft firmware engineer who worked on parts of the company’s cloud-computing platform, Azure, was escorted out the Build conference by security nearly immediately after he confronted Satya Nadella.“Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians,” Lopez yelled. “How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?”After the disruption, Lopez sent an all-staff email explaining his decision to stage a protest.“As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has immeasurable power to do the right thing: demand an end to this senseless tragedy, or we will cease our technological support for Israel,” read the email, which has also been published on Medium
How to protect your data after a cyber-attack
Another cyber-attack has hit the headlines – this one involving the personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales.It comes hard on the heels of recent cyber-attacks that caused huge disruption at Marks & Spencer and the Co-op, and has prompted fresh reminders for people to be extra-vigilant for any suspicious activity.If you’re worried your data may have fallen into the wrong hands somehow, here are some tips for protecting yourself.Always make sure you have strong passwords, and don’t use the same one on more than one account.If you have had any dealings with a company or organisation that has suffered a cyber-attack, change the password that you use for that website or app immediately
Bankrupt DNA testing firm 23andMe to be purchased for $256m
The drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy the genetic testing firm 23andMe Holding for $256m through a bankruptcy auction, the companies announced on Monday.Regeneron said it will comply with 23andMe’s privacy policies and applicable laws with respect to the use of customer data and that it is ready to detail its intended use of the data to a court-appointed overseer. The companies expect to close the deal in the third quarter.“Regeneron Genetics Center is committed to and has a proven track record of safeguarding the genetic data of people across the globe, and, with their consent, using this data to pursue discoveries that benefit science and society,” said Aris Baras, the senior vice-president and head of the Regeneron Genetics Center. “We assure 23andMe customers that we are committed to protecting the 23andMe dataset with our high standards of data privacy, security and ethical oversight and will advance its full potential to improve human health
AI can be more persuasive than humans in debates, scientists find
Artificial intelligence can do just as well as humans, if not better, when it comes to persuading others in a debate, and not just because it cannot shout, a study has found.Experts say the results are concerning, not least as it has potential implications for election integrity.“If persuasive AI can be deployed at scale, you can imagine armies of bots microtargeting undecided voters, subtly nudging them with tailored political narratives that feel authentic,” said Francesco Salvi, the first author of the research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He added that such influence was hard to trace, even harder to regulate and nearly impossible to debunk in real time.“I would be surprised if malicious actors hadn’t already started to use these tools to their advantage to spread misinformation and unfair propaganda,” Salvi said
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