Offender Management Bill

I thank all those who have spoken, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, who has an insatiable interest in how the Government manage their day-to-day business. I thank him for that oversight. Policy on this matter is now very much in the hands of the Ministry of Justice. This Government believe that the way of delivering what the noble Lord proposed is a matter for the Ministry of Justice, and that specifying governance as suggested is neither necessary nor appropriate for the Bill. As the noble Lord anticipated, a number of mechanisms in NOMS serve the purposes of the proposed board, ensuring the quality of new policy and practice being promulgated to prisons and probation services. I am very conscious that some noble Lords who have been listening to this debate may not be as interested in the minute detail as others, so I shall seek to outline the framework. It might be helpful if I wrote in slightly more detail to those who find this issue endlessly—and appropriately—fascinating. At the highest level, the National Offender Management Service aims to deliver reduced reoffending and increased public protection, both of which require an environment in which improving standards of offender management are actively embraced, and the director-general of the Prison Service and the director of the Probation Service both sit on its management board. This is chaired by the chief executive of NOMS, who also sits on the Ministry of Justice board, which is chaired in turn by the Secretary of State, who is by that mechanism kept abreast of and intimately involved in managing the management of offenders. Structures slightly lower down within NOMS plan and manage the implementation of offender management and develop and promulgate improved practices, working closely with operational colleagues. I respectfully suggest that a new board would not add value to this work, and indeed it is quite likely that a new board at the level proposed would substantially increase bureaucracy and delay in what we want to be a flexible and innovative area of work. From the privileged debates that I have been able to listen to in this House, I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, and others all abhor bureaucracy and wish us to keep it to an absolute minimum—and we agree. Of course, we recognise that there will be a need to keep structures currently in place under review, particularly following the passage and implementation of a Bill of this magnitude and importance, to ensure that we always have the best systems in place to respond to the current issues. The National Offender Management Service is a self-standing commissioning organisation, aiming to encourage innovation and new approaches by a range of providers in addressing its core aims of reducing reoffending and protecting the public. In doing that, it is responsible itself for the management of all offenders by providing leadership to the providers who carry out the work. In that regard, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, that leadership is of immense importance. We wish to enhance the leadership opportunities and skills of the service to make sure that we need and deliver the changes that we all aspire to see. By the nature of the system, it is at the centre of NOMS and has to strive to specify what providers must supply in the least prescriptive terms possible, and the governance must reflect that. I have said on a number of occasions in our debates that we have to focus on outcomes, delivery and change. Establishing a board of this type and at this level would fly in the face of that principle, increasing restrictions on innovation and on our opportunity to get the very best from the system. We all agree that we do not want to slow the process down. We all accept that it has to be dynamic. The dynamism that we wish to see has to be deliverable by NOMS, the organisation at its very centre. More than anything, we must keep at the front of our minds the need to use offender management services that meet the needs of offenders and achieve the aims of NOMS—making offenders less likely to reoffend and keeping the public safe. I hope that the noble Baroness will understand when I say that that I was glad that she was late for the reasons that she gave. It is important for us to go and taste and see what is happening on the ground. It gives one a much better understanding of why change is necessary and how change may be deliverable. I agree with her if her assessment of the project that she saw today was that it was of a high quality. It gives one hope for the way forward that we may be able to chart together. All that is of real importance and we need to keep it as our clear focus. Clearly, we shall listen to what those on the front line tell us about our delivery structures. We are told by them that the current structure is well suited to its intended purpose. Therefore, I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, that we have to do that which is attuned to front-line delivery, and that what works is best, not necessarily the ““speak”” that we get from others or even in this House. To set out in legislation something which ought to be determined by those with the greatest knowledge of how best to shape the organisation in order to drive standards in that area would, if I may respectfully suggest, be rather dangerous and, at the very least, ill conceived. We must allow them to do the jobs for which they are accountable without inappropriate interference that might hamper them. We should give them structure, a framework and the liberty to do that which they are entrusted to do. Of course, I hear what the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, said in relation to the report of my noble friend Lady Corston. Like others, I immediately alighted on its significance and importance and the need for us to respond to it comprehensively. I refer not just to the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice, but to all the other departments that the report touches. I have heard noble Lords say that they wish the Government to respond comprehensively. It is open to any noble Lord to table a Question or ask for a debate at any time. However, the majority have felt it appropriate to await the Government’s response. We hope that the response will be comprehensive and that it will give us something to talk about. We shall make sure that it is made available to all those who are most anxious to see it as soon as it is ready. I cannot give the Committee a date for that but I am confident that it would rather have a comprehensive response from the whole of government than a partial one.