The United Kingdom has announced new sentencing powers that will bar individuals with criminal records from participating in various activities, including football matches, concerts, and travel.
The move is part of the government’s plan for change to cut crime and make streets safer.
It said that judges would be able to curtail offenders’ freedoms with driving limits, travel bans, and restriction zones confining them into specific areas.
The changes are expected to toughen up community punishments to deter reoffending and force offenders back on the straight and narrow.
It said that as part of the government’s work to do everything in its power to keep Britain safe, offenders coming out of prison and supervised by the Probation Service would also face similar restrictions and an expanded mandatory drug testing regime.
The Government Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, emphasised the importance of punishing offenders and restricting their freedoms.
“When criminals break society’s rules, they must be punished. Those serving their sentences in the community must have their freedom restricted there, too,” Mahmood said.
”Offenders who break the rules will face consequences, including being brought back to court or hauled back to prison, depending on the sentence they are serving,” he added .
The government aimed to ensure that punishments cut crime and keep the public safe.
According to the government, judges are currently able to give out limited bans for specific crimes, for example, football bans for crimes committed inside a stadium on match day, to prevent further antisocial behaviour.
It, however, said it would change the law shortly so that such bans could be handed down as a form of punishment for any offence in any circumstance.
“It will form part of wider reforms to sentencing to ensure punishments cut crime and prisons never again run out of places for dangerous offenders.
”Over 2,400 prison places have opened since July 2024, with the government investing £7 billion to create a total of 14,000 as the prison population increases.
“Investment in the Probation Service will also receive a huge boost with an increase of up to £700 million by 2028/29, up from the annual budget of around £1.6 billion today.
”This week, it was revealed that the number of Probation Officers has increased by seven per cent in the last 12 months, with trainee probation officer numbers also seeing a surge of 15 per cent.
“This follows the government’s commitment to recruit a further 1,300 this year, in addition to the 1,000 trainee probation officers recruited last year.
‘:New technology, including artificial intelligence, will lighten the administrative burden and free up time for probation staff to increase supervision of the most dangerous offenders and keep the public safe,” the government disclosed on its website.
This investment will help increase the number of Probation Officers and improve supervision of high-risk offenders.
