Offender Management Bill

I support the amendment. I listened to my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham from the Bar. Yesterday, I had an email from the BMA, which is very concerned about overcrowding in prisons. There should be a manager because when people have a sudden illness and have to be transferred out to a general hospital, they need to be escorted. Often prison staff are not on hand to do the escorting. That is a worry. I was at a conference last week on prison health and dual diagnosis. There was great concern from all sorts of people about those with dual diagnosis: prisoners or patients, whatever you call them, with mental health problems and drug and alcohol problems. Sometimes they fall through the net of treatment because one department says that it belongs to the other. I also spoke with several black people who were very concerned that not only dual diagnosis, but diagnoses of hidden things like sickle cell disease were often missed, which causes many black people considerable trouble. Therefore, more finance is needed for health in prisons, more people with expertise on these matters are needed and there is a need for more management when prisoners go out into the community, which is where great problems sometimes happen.