Probation staff vote to strike in blow to Burnham plans on early release

Napo members overwhelmingly back action after union had criticised prisons proposals as rushed Probation staff have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike, in a potentially serious complication to Andy Burnham’s plans to tweak an early release scheme for prisoners to try to exclude more serious offenders, among them the killers of PC Andrew Harper. While the vote by members of Napo was not directly connected to the early release plans, the probation officers’ union has previously criticised the...

By Peter Walker, Rajeev Syal and Caroline Davies