Offender Management Bill

moved Amendment No. 3: 3: Clause 2, page 3, line 7, leave out paragraph (c) and insert— ““(c) the proper enforcement of court orders;”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, again I mention a subject which was discussed at considerable length in Committee. At that time I proposed the removal of the word ““punishment”” from the principles of the Bill, as I did not think that punishment was the right word to apply to the activities of the Probation Service. During the discussion points were made by several noble Lords, which I have read and considered with great care. I read in particular the comments of the Minister. She said that she understood that punishment was included in the Bill because: "““Punishment is the sense of loss of liberty or other rights and freedoms””." That was not the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Brittan, when Home Secretary, and others; which was that prison was punishment and that the deprivation of liberty was the punishment awarded by the court. It is not a sense of loss of liberty; it is an actual loss of liberty. A sentence is an actual thing, not a sense of something. The Minister invited me to withdraw my amendment because: "““Punishment is … an integral part of any sentence and cannot be disentangled from the other purposes””.—[Official Report, 16/5/07; col. 228.]" I accept that punishment is an integral part of the sentence because it is the sentence. However, it is the sentence awarded by the courts, not the Probation Service. As many noble Lords pointed out, the duty of the Probation Service is to execute the order or sentence of the court. It is required to do that over a period awarded by the court, and it has to do it in a manner appropriate to the sentence, the crime that led to the sentence and the needs of the offender, which have to be worked out; hence, the whole basis of the offender management system—end-to-end offender management based on the needs of the offender and aimed at rehabilitation. What is the aim of the Probation Service in this? Clause 2(4) sets out very clearly five aims: "““(a) the protection of the public””—" we have no argument with that— "““(b) the reduction of re-offending””—" we talked about that— "““(d) ensuring offenders’ awareness of the effects of crime on the victims of crimes and the public””—" and, most important of all, as we have said: "““(e) the rehabilitation of offenders””." Contained in those aims is the phrase, "““(c) the proper punishment of offenders””." Those other four—protection of the public, reduction of reoffending, ensuring offenders’ awareness and rehabilitation—are aims and proper purposes for the Probation Service and are what it is all about; but punishment is not its role. If we are really being helpful in describing to people what probation is all about, we need to have a ““doing word”” that explains it better. I am grateful to those Members of the House who mentioned other words. The one that seems to me to fit the bill best is ““enforcement””. That explains that there has got to be some enforcement of what the court says. This is not something to be treated lightly or wantonly; this is something that has to be done on behalf of the public to protect them, and it has to be done properly. What is it enforcing? It is enforcing the order of the court. The court determines that people come into the hands of the Probation Service. Therefore it seems to me that it is much better than having the wrong word ““punishment”” to have the right word ““enforcement”” of what it is that the court determines that the Probation Service should do. Again, because this is an important Bill and we hope that it has in it the proper description of what the management of offenders should be, and although we are playing with words, we should get those words right. These are the words that, having reflected on our discussion in Committee, I suggest to noble Lords are better than the word ““punishment””, because they describe what is required and they refer to enforcement, which many noble Lords felt ought to be in the Bill. They emphasise that it is the courts which are responsible for the sentence that has to be enforced.