Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said in Parliament the Probation Department issued 372 new probation orders last year.

He was introducing the second reading of the Probation Act (Amendment) Bill on Monday. The Bill seeks to transpose the provisions of a 2008 European Council Framework decision on the application of the principle of mutual recognition of judgments and probation decisions.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that, in 2003, the law was amended to include community work, the possibility of pre-sentencing reports and the payment of damages to victims by the person put on probation.

The minister said the Probation Act was being strengthened through the Bill. He emphasised that if the probation conditions were not observed, then the offender faced jail.

The amendments also propose that the community service hours were to be increased from 240 to 480 hours.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici praised probation officers, saying it was through their work that the Probation Act was further strengthened.