PROBATION officers were expected to back industrial action as an indicative ballot on government plans to release more prisoners early closed today.

Proposals under the Sentencing Act to ease overcrowding by freeing some 5,000 prisoners from October have sparked a public backlash, although Prime Minister Andy Burnham has excluded rapists and child-sex offenders from the scheme.

The Napo union said that the changes to early-release rules would add to already “unsustainable” probation service workloads.

It warned that the latest plans would lead to the release of “thousands of domestic abuse perpetrators and stalkers,” posing “real issues of public protection.”

An Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Protecting the public is our top priority.

“The Sentencing Act is restoring order to a prison system left on the brink of collapse, while our record £700 million investment in probation and community punishment is ensuring staff have the resources, powers and technology they need to manage offenders safely in the community.”

Meanwhile, embattled Reform UK leader Nigel Farage gave a London press conference today to set out the party’s plans to deport foreign offenders to El Salvador and Kosovo.

Appearing alongside him, Reform home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf claimed the party’s plans to increase the number of prisoners while sending foreign offenders to jails abroad would be “net-cost neutral.”

Mr Farage, who faces a parliamentary investigation into an undeclared £5 million donation, said: “To house a foreign national offender in El Salvador will be half the cost of housing a foreign national offender in this country — and will give us more prison spaces.”