Recommendation 59

Tom Franklin, Chief Executive of the Magistrates’ Association, confirmed that “the changes in the Probation Service over the last decade have certainly not helped at all” because “there is a feeling that a lot of the expertise in the Probation Service was lost as a result”, such that “the level of confidence has taken a knock over the last few years.” Tom Franklin, however, told us that community sentences are now “as popular as ever” among magistrates. 92 Lord Justice William Davis agreed that the lack of confidence was “historical and does not apply any more.” 93