Tom Gash, Director of Research at the Institute of Government, is the latest contributor to a series of interviews about the MoJ’s probation reform programme: Transforming Rehabilitation.

The IfG recently produced a key report on Making Public Service markets work which included a substantial section on the challenges of the probation reforms. You can also seeing him giving expert evidence to the House of Commons Justice Committee on Transforming Rehabiliation.

Tom is concerned about the pace and scale of the TR reforms and the danger that new providers may “park” offenders who are assessed as difficult/expensive to help change, not providing them with the services they need.

He advocates that the MoJ must be careful to protect its knowledge about what works in reducing reoffending; it will need to steward the market to prevent domination by a small number of players and ensure access to new providers.

You can follow Tom Gash, who has a particular interest in criminal justice on Twitter, @TGCrime