PROBATION officers' union Napo won the right yesterday to access key documents related to the government's proposed privatisation of the probation service.

Napo is bringing a legal challenge over plans to split up and privatise part of the service, arguing that it will expose officers and the public to "serious and avoidable harm."

The union's case was boosted yesterday after London's High Court granted it access to files relating to risk management.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling had opposed disclosure of the documents - including the results of safety tests - while claiming the reforms would bring together the best of the public, private and voluntary sectors to tackle reoffending.

The proposals are currently being tested to establish whether they are safe prior to entering binding agreements with privateers.

Napo is seeking a High Court judicial review based on evidence from the testing period indicating that the government has operated the system in breach of its duty to protect staff, offenders and the public.

One union complaint is that private companies are managing high-risk offenders "without the appropriate tools" and serious delays in the transfer of cases to the national probation service is leaving offenders unsupervised.

Napo spokeswoman Tania Bassett said: "Napo is really pleased with the court's decision to grant disclosure of critical Ministry of Justice documentation that we believe is fundamental to our case that the new two-tier system is not safe and is not in the public interest."