Offender Management Bill

moved Amendment No. 33: 33: After Clause 26, insert the following new Clause— ““Offender Management Board (1) There shall be a board to be known as the Offender Management Board (““the Board””). (2) The Board shall be based within the Ministry of Justice. (3) The members of the Board shall include— (a) the Secretary of State who shall act as chairman, (b) the Director-General of the Prison Service, (c) the Director of the National Probation Service, (d) the chairman of the Youth Justice Board, (e) the Commissioner for Women appointed under section (Commission for Women Offenders), and (f) other persons who the Secretary of State may nominate. (4) The Board shall be responsible for— (a) disseminating policy to, and (b) establishing good practice with respect to, all organisations involved in the operation of the offender management system. (5) In carrying out its functions, the Board shall comply with any directions given by the Secretary of State and act in accordance with any guidance given by him.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, Amendment No. 33, which we tabled previously, concerns an offender management board. This time I have added a link to with Clause 34. Therefore, I shall speak also to Clause 34. I refer to the very specific addition to the members of an offender management board of the Commissioner for Women, whom I hope will be appointed as a result of the recommendations of the Corston report. My reason—and that of my noble friend Lady Howe—for adding a further paragraph to the amendment concerning the Commission for Women Offenders is to seek enlightenment from the noble and learned Baroness. In May, I tabled a debate on the women’s commission issue. At her request, I withdrew the debate because she said that she would produce a formal response to that and therefore it made sense to have a debate based on the government response. I accepted that and withdrew the debate. Since then, the noble and learned Baroness has moved to another position. I was told that I should instead contact Vera Baird in the Ministry of Justice, who is now the Minister responsible. I wrote to her. I have not had a reply, which is not surprising as she is no longer in that position either. Therefore, one of my purposes in tabling the amendment is to ask the noble and learned Baroness, before she moves from her position, what exactly will happen and when we can expect the matter to be debated. It is hugely important to have women’s issues properly tackled. They must be represented on an offender management board. That is my purpose in retabling the amendment. I beg to move.