TWO of the region’s police and crime commissioners have told the Government: ‘We told you so’ after it scrapped controversial private probation contracts two years early at a cost of £170m.

Agreements with 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) set up to manage low-risk offenders will end in 2020 instead of 2022 and be replaced with new ones under reforms planned by new Justice Secretary David Gauke.

He revealed several CRCs had made “very substantial losses” under the part-privatisation programme and there were clear lessons to be learnt in improving the system.

Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland Barry Coppinger and his counterpart in Durham, Ron Hogg said probation reforms had been “incomplete, expensive and not joined-up”.

In a joint statement they said: “We told ministers [the model] was flawed before it had even been introduced.

“In a number of areas the quality of probation services being delivered is falling well short of what is needed, despite the hard work and dedication of staff.

“The inflexibility of CRC contracts is having a negative impact on our ability to effectively reduce offending and reoffending in our area.”

The Government, which scrapped the former Durham Tees Valley probation trust in 2015, now intends to set up ten new CRC contract areas, including one for the whole of the North-East.

But Mr Coppinger and Mr Hogg said this would limit partnership working with voluntary organisations.

The duo called for a “complete overhaul” of rehabilitative services and also suggested PCCs could commission services suitable for local needs.