Offender Management Bill

Clause 11 seeks to put beyond doubt the different organisations, public, private or third sector, that can share information with each other to ensure effective offender management. It clearly sets out the reciprocal rights of data-sharing between organisations and states that information can be shared only for certain defined purposes—I am sure the noble Baroness understands that—namely, the purposes of probation, the performance of functions relating to prisons or prisoners, and the management of offenders, which also includes the purposes of research, development and assessment of policies connected with the management of offenders. In practical terms, this means that one prison operator can inform another operator of security information that might be relevant to handling a prisoner when he is transferred from one company’s jail to another, or that a provider of probation services will be able to share an assessment of an offender’s risk factors with a local authority that will provide him with housing. Not only will it enable the system of managing offenders to function more effectively, it will also provide better research data. Additionally, it will enable us to evaluate and more effectively tailor rehabilitation programmes for offenders to reduce reoffending. The amendment would provide that another item set out in the subsequent amendment can be listed in this clause. The insertion proposes that a listed party should be able to share information with another listed party. My understanding is that the proposed disclosure of information using this clause will have to be fully compliant with the Data Protection Act 1998, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the common law of confidence in the usual way. We argue that the amendment is unnecessary, and that to allow those bodies with a lesser interest in offender management to share information with one another under this clause would risk creating the potential for confusion and, I would argue very firmly, the inadvertent misuse of the power. That is precisely what the clause itself is designed to avoid. Listed bodies are unlikely to need to share offender information with one another on a routine basis, and if information is required, it is much more appropriate that they speak directly with the source of the information from the agreed list. Exchanges between the two parties as suggested in the subsequent amendment would not be authorised by this clause, and giving them the power to do so would raise real concerns that perhaps the noble Baroness might share. The purpose of the clause is to make clear that nothing in any way removes or modifies the legal safeguards to which any proposal to share data is automatically subject. I am sure that the amendment is probing in nature, but those are the reasons why we could not accept this approach and why Clause 11 is included in the Bill.