Offender Management Bill

I believe that the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater, was right to press the Government for clarity on Clause 4. On that basis alone I support the way in which she has addressed her amendments. Like the noble Lord, Lord Warner, I approach the clause from the point of view of wishing to see contestability work well and not to inhibit it unless it is absolutely right to do so. There are reasons that can be forcefully adduced for saying that there are some areas where contestability should not be rolled out just yet, if at all. That has been the mainstay of much of our debate during our first days in Committee, in which so many noble Lords have taken part. The amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater, raises vital issues that have to be resolved if we are to make good progress on the Bill when we reach Report. Clause 4 was a concession from the Government during Report stage in another place, way back on 28 February. It restricts the Secretary of State’s power to award contracts for probation services. In effect, it ring-fences the public service provision of probation services to certain offender management services. That ring-fencing can be removed only by statutory instrument under Clause 12. This amendment appears to extend the ring-fencing to a wider range of probation provision; hence the cautionary note from the noble Lord, Lord Warner. When these matters were debated in another place, my honourable friend Mr Edward Garnier made it clear that we do not intend to intervene in the Government’s negotiations with others regarding the extension of the protection of services from being opened up to contestability, because we support contestability. However, as a result of the response of the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, and the noble Baroness, Lady Scotland, to amendments during our third day in Committee, I feel that it is necessary to take part in this debate to try to get further clarification. I hope that I will not test the patience of the Committee too much if I simply set out where I believe that clarification needs to be achieved, because it will have a direct impact on how I approach my Amendment No. 99 when we reach Clause 12. The clarification that I am looking for is as follows. First, I want clarification about the Government’s plans to roll out contestability. Secondly, I want a definition of what is covered by Clause 4. Thirdly, I want to hear the Government's justification for not extending the protection in Clause 4 to other sectors of offender management. Fourthly, I want to hear about the timetabling of their plans to remove Clause 4 by statutory instrument. I am grateful to both Mr Harry Fletcher from Napo and Mr Stephen Ormerod from Unison for their helpful briefing on these matters. I may not agree with every crossed ““t”” and dotted ““i”” in their briefing, but I recognise that, as always, they are so well informed and have the best concerns of good delivery of services at heart. I appreciate why all the amendments have been tabled. They are put forward on a matter of deeply held principle and are to be admired on that basis. They perform a valuable function, in that they require the Minister today to put clearly on record what services the Government expect to remain in the public sector as a result of the protection given by Clause 4. That is not just a matter of semantics; it is about knowing which services will be put out to contestability and whether the guarantee given by Dr Reid in another place of three years for the survival of Clause 4 has now become a guarantee for a longer period. On Third Reading, Dr Reid described what I and my right honourable and honourable friends thought was a two-stage roll-out. The two-stage roll-out appeared to be as follows: first, as soon as the Bill is on the statute book, all offender management work, except that covered by Clause 4, would or could be opened to contestability. The Bill clearly gives the Government the power to do that. Whatever other assurances they give, the power is in the Bill. The core services in Clause 4, the second part of the roll-out, would be protected for only three years and Clause 4 would then be removed by the affirmative procedure. He said that the, "““core offender management tasks of the probation service—for example, offender report writing, offender supervision and breach proceedings—will remain in the public sector for the next three years. That is for at least the lifetime of this Parliament. I alluded to that the last time I was here and I make it plain again today. For the next three years, the core tasks of offender management will remain in the public sector””." Later, he said: "““In short, there is a three-year guarantee for the retention of offender management in the public sector and a double lock meaning that any movement after that will require a vote of both Houses of Parliament””.—[Official Report, Commons 28/2/07; cols 1023-5.]" It was a three-year guarantee. In Committee in this House, however, the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, stated: "““We will not contract for offender management outside the public sector before 2010. The Clause 4 concession relates only to court work””.—[Official Report, 23/5/07; col. 677.]" That implied that the Clause 4 concession does not cover all offender management. That is what needs to be clarified. The noble Baroness, Lady Scotland, acknowledged that at least one area of offender management was not covered by Clause 4 protection—that of advising the parole board. Amendment No. 51A, in the name of the noble Baronesses, Lady Gibson of Market Rasen and Lady Turner of Camden, would rectify that. Does the Minister intend to accept the amendment today or to consider bringing back an amendment on Report? On the past statements made by the Government, that would seem the logical thing for them to do. Today, the noble Baroness, Lady Gibson, has made a powerful case. As I said, I shall not get involved in negotiations between the Government and others to delay contestability, but I see the logic and force behind her argument, given the concessions already made by the Government in another place. What other areas of offender management are not protected by Clause 4? Whatever is covered by the Clause 4 concession, the period of its life seemed to be lengthened by the noble Baroness, Lady Scotland, when she responded on a different amendment during our debates in Committee. She stated that, "““non-public sector providers will not advise courts in the foreseeable future””.—[Official Report, 23/5/07; col. 695.]" I wonder whether the Minister is being very generous and saying that the foreseeable future is only until Mr Brown calls the next election. If so, she is of course in accord with her honourable friends in another place. To me, however, the foreseeable future sometimes seems to be a little further in the distance than that. Perhaps she has no ambition about winning the next election, but we need to know what life this protection is likely to have, and we need clarity on the matter today.