Offender Management Bill

I entirely support all that has been said in this debate so far. However, rather than simply trying to legislate against conflicts of interest, which does not entirely remove the conflict of interest, there are some aspects of the Probation Service that it is simply not appropriate to put into private hands. The writing of pre-sentence reports may well be one of those aspects. I would go a little further even than the amendment and ask whether allowing all the different functions to be discharged privately is not perhaps throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Should certain things not be done by the justice system in the public sphere?