Greggs, Iceland and Greene King are among the British businesses to back a new Government initiative aimed at steering offenders on probation away from crime and into stable jobs.
Leaders from major employers will be among those to sit on new employment councils in regions across England and Wales.
The plans have been spearheaded by Lord James Timpson, the Government’s prisons officer and the former chief executive of the family-owned services business Timpson.
The scheme aims to bolster the work of the probation service which supervises offenders serving community sentences and who have been released from prison.
Local businesses will work with prisons and probation officers on the councils, while representatives from the Department for Work and Pensions are expected to help improve links with local job centres.
Businesses supporting the scheme include Greggs, pub group Greene King, retailers Iceland, Co-op and Oliver Bonas, and infrastructure groups National Highways and Balfour Beatty.
The businesses, which collectively have thousands of stores across the UK, have been brought in to give a better understanding of the local jobs market and to build relationships with offenders looking for work.
The concept builds on the prison employment advisory boards, which were launched in prisons in 2022 as a link between jails and employers.
These boards, which are in 93 prisons and are also chaired by business experts, help prisons run the right training programmes and workshops for offenders to get back into the workplace.
Lord Timpson said: “Getting former offenders into stable work is a sure way of cutting crime and making our streets safer.
“That’s why partnering with businesses to get more former offenders into work is a win-win.”
He said the councils will expand on the employment advisory boards which have “made huge progress” over the past two years.
Employment councils will be set up in 11 different regions encompassing all of England and Wales.
