Chris Grayling’s legacy is dangerous offenders going unsupervised and more expenditure

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It is another problem he has inherited from Chris Grayling, who also bequeathed him the controversial criminal courts charge, which one Whitehall official describes as the “poll tax in a wig”. The previous Justice Secretary broke up the 35 public sector probation trusts and replaced them with 21 privately-run “community rehabilitation companies” supervising 150,000 low and medium-risk offenders each year. The first effects of the part-privatisation are being felt with Sodexo preparing to cut hundreds of officers’ jobs and floating plans for electronic kiosks at which offenders can clock in without seeing a probation officer. Critics also worry public safety could be jeopardised by the split as some offenders will be too high-risk to be supervised by private sector staff and that the financial squeeze means court reports on some sex offenders are not sufficiently detailed.