Identity area
Authorized form of name
Description area
History
The first Probation Officers were appointed in 1907 under the Probation of Offenders Act 1907. In the 1920s it became a requirement for courts to appoint a Probation Officer. Female Probation Officers were first introduced in the 1950s. In 1972 Community Service was brought in as an alternative sentencing option to prison. Hostels (now called Approved Premises) were introduced to increase public protection and supervision of dangerous offenders in the 1980s. In 2001 Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) were introduced, so that probation, police, prisons and other agencies can work together to manage dangerous offenders in the community. In 2004 the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) was formed by merging HM Prison Service and the National Probation Service.
London Probation has been protecting the public and rehabilitating offenders in London since 2001. Before then, five separate organisations provided probation services in London on a regional basis;
South West London Probation Service
South East London Probation Service
North East London Probation Service
Inner London Probation Service
Middlesex Probation Service
The merger in 2001 brought together all five organisations so that London Probation now provides probation services to the whole of London.
Source: http://www.london-probation.org.uk/about_us/history.aspx (Accessed June 2009).