The government’s announced a big shake-up in how criminals are punished. From now on, judges will have more power to ban offenders from things like pubs, concerts, football matches and
even travel.
It’s all part of a plan to make community punishments tougher and stop reoffending. Here’s what’s changing:
New bans: Judges can restrict where offenders go, who they see, and even limit driving and travel.
More drug testing: Mandatory drug tests will now apply to more offenders – not just those with a known history of drug use.
Break the rules, face prison: If offenders ignore these restrictions, they can be dragged back to court or even straight back to jail.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the new powers are about making sure “crime does not pay” and ensuring punishments actually cut crime.
Until now, bans like football exclusions could only be given in certain circumstances (like trouble at a match). Soon, they’ll be available as a punishment for any crime.
This is part of wider reforms, which also include:
- Building 14,000 new prison places (2,400 already open since last summer).
- Pumping £700m extra into probation services by 2028.
- Hiring more probation officers (7% increase in the last year, with 1,300 more coming).
- Using AI tools to free up probation officers so they can spend more time supervising dangerous offenders.
Bottom line: more restrictions, tougher consequences, and a bigger focus on keeping the public safe. Photo by morebyless, Wikimedia commons.