Offender Management Bill

I, too, very much support the amendment. As a judge in my previous life, I had considerable experience of children coming before me whose parents were in prison. I cannot say how many children came before me, but there were certainly hundreds. It was extremely interesting to note the enormous benefit for those children of retaining contact as much with the father as with the mother. Clearly the mother was crucial, but the contact that children could have with the father in prison was extremely valuable in many, many instances and settled children who otherwise were suffering quite severely. These beneficial visits were very difficult to arrange. Prisons varied in their support for these visits. To my sorrow, on numerous occasions, it simply was not possible for these children to see their fathers because, as the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, said, the fathers were placed too far away. The mother had no money and did not get social benefit to go on a trip, so it often required social workers to help. A clause like this, flagging up the enormous importance of the welfare of this group of children—150,000 children, as the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, told us—will be a valuable and, perhaps, salutary reminder for some organisers and for those who are in charge of arrangements for allowing children to see their parents. I strongly support this amendment.