Courts are being encouraged to give lighter sentences to save the probation service money, a panel of MPs was told.

Magistrates are being told more curfew orders are easier to manage than time-consuming community orders.

The claim was made at a session of the House of Commons justice committee at Brighton Town Hall yesterday.

The panel of MPs, which is gathering evidence ahead of Government reforms of the justice system, came to Sussex because the area had piloted a scheme to allow probation officers more discretion in their work.

The Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust’s chief executive Sonia Crozier was unable to provide a figure for the rate of reoffending by the criminals the body deals with. The method of calculating that statistic nationally has been criticised.

The trust’s statistics actually show a reoffending rate of 8.87% last year, lower than the national average of 9.75% - but neither figure is judged to be “statistically significant”.

The completion rate for community orders is 75% - meaning 25% of offenders breach the terms of their sentences.

Ms Crozier said: “At the heart of all this there is the challenge of working with this really difficult group.

“By the time they get to the probation service, they have often failed in every other government agency.”

The trust’s budgets have been cut and funding is expected to have fallen by £6.9 million, or 23%, by 2015 compared with 2009.

It is trying to reduce the number of people it works with. Staff numbers have been cut, but the number of probation officers employed has increased.

Ms Crozier said: “We have been very successful in reducing our workload. Last year we reduced the community orders imposed by our local courts by 8%.

“We have been encouraging our staff to think more carefully about the use of curfews.”

A spokesman for the trust said after the hearing that the “alternative sentencing options” were used “only where risk levels are appropriate and this is a suitable punishment for the crime”.

Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett, Sussex Police city commander for Brighton and Hove, said “third sector” agencies were key to the future success of managing and rehabilitating criminals as cuts take effect.

He said: “Short sentences that do not work just increase the burden.

“I now hear about the children of the people I used to deal with when I first started policing in the city 22 years ago.

“That is disappointing, because something isn’t working.

“If we are not able to break the cycle, the demand on the public sector and communities will continue, but the capacity to meet that demand will diminish.”

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