Michael Spurr

Michael has had a long career working in Prisons and Probation in England and Wales.  He joined HM Prison Service as a Prison Officer at HMP Leeds in 1983 and worked in a range of operational roles in various establishments and at Headquarters where he led the work to create a network of Close Supervision Centres to manage the most challenging prisoners in the system.  He was Governor at HMYOI Aylesbury; HMP Wayland in Norfolk and at HMP/YOI Norwich.

Michael joined the Prison Service Agency board as Director of Operations in 2003 and worked closely with the Department of Health to transfer responsibility for health care in prisons to the National Health Service.  In April 2008 Prisons and Probation were brought together under the new National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Agency and Michael was appointed as Chief Operating Officer taking responsibility for operational performance, service integration and the creation of Probation Trusts.

Michael became Chief Executive of NOMS in June 2010 leading the organisation through a substantial change programme to reduce costs and to implement the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms which restructured Probation in England and Wales and extended post release supervision to all convicted offenders released from prison.