Offender Management Bill

My Lords, with the greatest respect, I was not saying that we should simply go back to where we were and all would be well; I was trying to draw the parallel that we had a very good model in which the probation officer led, as it were, a consortium of others. That could be developed to advantage. The model I envisaged would be of a probation officer leading, managing or supervising a team of volunteers, the private sector and charities. That team would take much of the pressure at the lower level of criminality, leaving the probation officer, first, to supervise that team, and secondly, to concentrate on the more serious cases which deserve his personal attention.