Since 1997, the probation resource budget has increased by nearly 70 per cent. in real terms, with 7,000 more probation staff. The service now receives over £900 million of public money, and it is essential that this money is put to good use.
There is significant scope for savings in the probation service, particularly by reducing unnecessary management layers, streamlining changes and cutting bureaucracy. The potential for savings has been verified externally.
Challenging efficiency targets have been set for probation areas that want to become trusts, but the priority is public protection. This will not be compromised.
The probation service's budget for 2009-10 is set at £894 million. Although this is £20 million less than the £914 million budget for 2008-09, outturn for this year is estimated at £889 million—£5 million less than 2009-10 budget allocation. In order to make funding allocations as fair as possible savings requirements vary between probation areas, taking identified potential savings and the number of convictions in the area into account. Planned budgets for individual probation areas in 2009-10 are:
£000 South West 65,132 Avon and Somerset 20.221 Devon and Cornwall 20.236 Dorset 9,040 Gloucestershire 7,626 Wiltshire 8,008 Eastern 71,746 Bedfordshire 9,497 Cambridgeshire 10,092 Essex 19,231 Hertfordshire 11,411 Norfolk 11,535 Suffolk 9,980 North West 130,982 Cheshire 15,074 Cumbria 8,586 Lancashire 24,351 Greater Manchester 51,342 Merseyside 31,629 East Midlands 66,942 Derbyshire 13,945 Leicestershire 15,129 Lincolnshire 9,373 Northamptonshire 9,320 Nottinghamshire 19,176 North East 52,817 Durham 10,532 Teesside 13,315 Northumbria 28,969 South East 100,077 Hampshire 24,769 Kent 21,359 Surrey 10,183 Sussex 17,989 Thames Valley 25,776 Yorks and Humber 92,717 Humberside 17,249 North Yorkshire 9,779 South Yorkshire 24,877 West Yorkshire 40,812 West Midlands 96,110 Staffordshire 16,829 Warwickshire 7,150 West Mercia 15,217 West Midlands 56,913 London 150,384 Wales 56,381 Dyfed Powys 8,626 Gwent 11,069 North Wales 12,409 South Wales 24,277