Offender Management Bill

moved Amendment No. 26: 26: Clause 2, page 3, line 5, at end insert ““; and ( ) the reduction of the causes of re-offending.”” The noble Lord said: There was a sense of self-interest in my intervention. This is a probing amendment, as I want to draw attention to the importance of addressing the causes of crime, whether they lead to offending or reoffending, although I recognise that the focus of the Bill is on reoffending. There was a time some 10 years ago when the Government rightly laid great stress on addressing the causes of crime. Why has that objective got lost? I believe that that is the only strategy that is likely to effect a major reduction in the revolving door of offending, prison and reoffending. I am encouraged by the fact that in our debate on Clause 1 frequent reference was made to the causes of offending, of which many were mentioned, including alcohol addiction, drug addiction, mental health problems, housing difficulties and unemployment. One that was not mentioned, but which I have heard of increasingly recently, is that we live in a society whose main purpose and measure of success, status and respect seems to be the acquisition by each person of more and yet more material goods. Researchers have shown that the inability to participate in that rat race causes depression, loss of sense of purpose and even the loss of a sense of identity in society. Under those circumstances, people join gangs to take the risks of crime—indeed, the risks of crime are probably therapy, which relieve the utter boredom of an unfulfilled life. I have heard that argument in the context of the extraordinarily good results shown by voluntary work for prisoners. If probation services are to reduce reoffending, should they not focus on the causes of crime? Would it not be cheaper and better for all if the same effort were put into reducing the causes of offending as what is now spent on trying to control and reform offenders? Should that not be a major objective of the Secretary of State in this Bill? I beg to move.