Offender Management Bill

We on the Conservative Benches support this amendment and those of your Lordships who have spoken on it. It raises the vital question of the proper management of offenders. Again, the noble Lord has hit the nail on the head in tabling an amendment that would fulfil the scope of this Bill better than the Bill itself. I am grateful to the noble Lords for introducing an amendment that addresses so succinctly my concerns and those of my colleagues in another place. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the tireless work of my honourable friend John Bercow, the Member for Buckingham, on these matters. It is hardly controversial to say that mental ill health in prisons is a crucial problem. Around 70 per cent of those taken into custody have at least two identifiable mental illnesses, so we are not talking about only those whose incarceration has caused depression. Among the young taken into custody, the chance of recovering from mental illnesses diminishes with every year that they are incarcerated with insufficient care, and it has been accepted by all parties—countless times, and in countless debates—that truly effective offender management starts with a proper diagnosis of the cause of offending. The noble Lord has already outlined how important it is for the punishment to fit not simply the crime but the offender as well. Prison without care for offenders with mental ill health only exacerbates existing problems. The Minister noted the Government’s desire that the National Health Service should take responsibility for the commissioning of health services for prisoners, although she made it clear that responsibility for prisoners’ health in all forms should remain outside the direct remit of the criminal justice system. But have the Government not considered that health screenings on entry into prison, for example, place health issues at the heart of the criminal justice system? Will the Minister consider that mental ill health not only can characterise a prisoner’s motives for offending, but should characterise the type of care allocated? The amendment will ensure that the criminal justice and health agencies work together to ensure that resources deployed in rehabilitation are used in the most effective and appropriate ways. Significantly, early intervention in carrying out a mental health assessment at the point of charging could give invaluable guidance to the courts in providing for the terms of sentencing.