SUPERVISION of all offenders on licence and serving community sentences in England and Wales will be entirely under public control from next year, it was announced today.

The publicly run National Probation Service (NPS) will take over management of low and medium-risk cases – such as the unpaid work and “behavioural-change programmes” – which are currently handled by private community rehabilitation companies (CRCs).

NPS already supervises the rehabilitation of high-risk individuals. It will oversee operations for lower-risk individuals when CRC contracts end in June next year.