Offender Management Bill

I support the amendment because it goes to the heart of the anxiety of people in this field about contestability and the process of contracting out probation services. There are concerns about costs and cutbacks throughout most of our public services. It is a constant concern, as the noble Lord, Lord Warner, has already illustrated, and this area is no exception. The reordering of the Probation Service, which is at the heart of this Bill, reflects in most people’s minds the fear that the Government are looking at reoffending rates, concluding that the figure is very high and costing us all dear, and deciding that savings must be made through alternative providers. That is very simplistic but it is at the heart of the worries in people’s minds. That argument ignores the fact that the Probation Service has done extremely well against the Government’s targets. Only this week it published its latest figures for how it has performed against those targets; they have never been so good. It also ignores the fact that reoffending is an issue that is not solved simply or quickly, particularly when the causes of offending are looked at in any depth. All this is axiomatic to most people who deal with the problem. It is not a situation which is popular politically, not least because the causes are seldom dealt with by simple punishment and there is no quick fix for changing behaviour. Therefore, whoever manages offenders has to acknowledge this. Dealing with the very complex problems of this group of challenging, dysfunctional human beings requires first and foremost a wide range of skills, knowledge and experience. Generally this does not come cheap. Cutting corners in the interests of economy is likely to be very counter-productive. This amendment would not, as the noble Lord, Lord Warner, suggests, result in micromanagement but would require the Secretary of State to, as it were, unpick the criteria by which arrangements will be made with any provider for making probation provision—it makes clear what these criteria should be. He would be required in an order to set out clearly the factors which determine how the decision on commissioning is made. The amendment is to do with clarity and better understanding. These factors will have to include quality of service as well as value for money and will clarify the priorities which underpin any decision. It goes without saying that we need a clear commitment in this form, not merely through verbal assurances, that the quality of probation services will not suffer and must come first. This amendment also requires that minimum targets are not set—as has already been argued—for the amount of probation services to be provided by the voluntary or private sectors; particularly given the fact, as we argued earlier in the amendment on charities, that some of the very best practice may be found in small, local, voluntary providers. These may not operate economies of scale but on the basis of quality at a human level. The best way to achieve the highest standards required is to ensure the transparency that this amendment seeks. Thus, it has our full support.