PROBATION officers were apoplectic yesterday after Chris Grayling railroaded through plans to privatise the service despite widespread concerns over the effect of the sell-off.

The Justice Secretary signed £450 million-worth of contracts with private and voluntary sector bidders as part of his controversial “transforming rehabilitation” package.

The changes allow private firms and charities to take over the supervision of 225,000 low and medium-risk offenders each year on a payment-by-results basis.

The contracts have been chaotically split across 20 English regions and one in Wales while a new public-sector body, the National Probation Service, will deal with 31,000 high-risk offenders each year.

In a written ministerial statement, Mr Grayling said: “For the first time in recent history, these reforms will mean that virtually every offender released from custody will receive statutory supervision and rehabilitation in the community."

He claimed that the contracts illustrated, “how we are bringing together the best of the public, voluntary and private sectors with a wide range of skills and experience to improve rehabilitation provision.”

Probation union Napo brought judicial review proceedings against the government, seeking access to internal documents surrounding the privatisation.

The union successfully obtained the documents, which it says show that there are still significant failures with the new system which would “seriously undermine service delivery and public safety.”

But the union was denied the right to publish the files last week, with courtspointing to a confidentiality order that Napo said effectively “gagged” the workforce.

Napo general secretary Ian Lawrence said: “If they believe it is safe to sign contracts then they should publish the evidence that supports that.

“The only reason we are still bound by a confidentiality order is because the Ministry of Justice doesn’t want us to publish the evidence.”

Among the successful bidders for the lucrative contracts are private firms Sodexo and Seetec and consortia comprising both public and private-sector organisations including the Reducing Re-offending Partnership and Working Links.