Offender Management Bill

I support the noble Baroness’s amendment. We are moving towards a series of amendments discussing what a trust is, what its duties are and how its work fits in with those with which it co-operates. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Warner, in particular, that those of us who accept the principle of the mixed economy are concerned that it is well designed and functions for the purposes for which it was intended. In an earlier debate, I mentioned the example of the privatisation of the railways, in which an inappropriate model of piecemeal contracting and subcontracting was developed for railways maintenance, with extremely damaging consequences. We all understand that offender management requires active co-operation between a number of agencies—some public, some private—which require long-term trust and co-operation. As set out, this clause does not tell us enough about the difference between a board and a trust, and exactly what a trust will do. I note from the noble Baroness’s letter of last week that probation boards are key members of local criminal justice boards, but we want to know exactly how trusts will operate in those circumstances. We do not know whether trusts will have the same geographical boundaries or whether the disappearance of chief probation officers locally will affect them. There is a host of unanswered questions here. We consider that the speed of the transition under the legislation offers a high level of risk. I declare my suspicion of the new Labour approach to many of these things. It is, ““If in doubt, change the structure and certainly change the title of anything because that does something””. The National Probation Service was created six years ago, a range of changes has been set in train since 2004 and here are further changes, not yet fully explained or understood—perhaps the Government have not made up their mind about them yet—but we are asked to take them on trust; trust with a small ““t””, in this instance. We are entitled to know a little more. What is a trust? How does it differ from a board? Later amendments will discuss the composition of trusts in more detail. What sort of regulatory framework will these trusts have? How far will they be the lead providers of services? Will regional offender managers be able to go around them and commission lots of other services, which would make co-operation much more difficult? What will the transitional arrangements be? We do not have answers to these questions at present, and these amendments, and some of the following amendments, will probe them. Before we get to Report, we deserve more detail from the Government about what is intended.