Organisations which run Restorative Justice sessions – where crime victims meet directly with offenders in an attempt to obtain closure – claim that a unit set up within the Prison Service to extend and oversee the practice is in fact blocking it from happening.

Why Me? , a leading Restorative Justice organisation , claims the unit – known as ‘reHub’ – is ‘excessively risk averse, does not trust experts, insists cases are referred through its own process, takes decisions without consulting those involved, and fails to explain its thinking.

In response, the Ministry of Justice has now ordered a three month review of reHub’s work ‘with the aim to identify areas for improvement’.

Restorative Justice has been an important part of rehabilitation in prisons since the 1980s and is supported by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Prisons Minister Lord Timpson. It has been found to lead to a 14 per cent reduction in reoffending, and 80 per cent of victims who took part say it helped bring closure.

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