Offender Management Bill

moved Amendment No. 2: 2: After Clause 3, insert the following new Clause— ““Model contracts (1) The Secretary of State may produce model contracts for the purposes of seeking tenders for, and agreeing, contractual arrangements under section 3(2). (2) If the Secretary of State exercises his power under subsection (1) he shall produce different model contracts for private and voluntary sector providers. (3) A model contract may be amended or withdrawn at any time other than during the course of tendering. (4) There shall be published in the London Gazette— (a) a copy of any model contract produced under subsection (1), (b) a copy of any model contract amended under subsection (3), (c) a notice of the withdrawal of any model contract.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, the Companion to the Standing Orders says that amendments may be moved at Third Reading. The principal purposes are to clarify any remaining uncertainties, to improve the drafting, and, "““to enable the government to fulfil undertakings given at earlier stages of the bill””." When we on these Benches moved the amendment on Report, I made it very clear that this was intended to give the Government a chance to tell us more about how to manage contracts and how contracts would be provided differently for different private providers of services, such as those with profits, not-for-profits and voluntary organisations. The Minister provided us with a very rapidly produced 25-page letter at that time, and I understood her to promise that she had given an undertaking that we would return to this on Third Reading. The noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, said on Report that she had raised this issue in Committee and that she had also understood that the Government would come back to her before Report. I therefore press the point further today because, to our surprise, we have not heard further from the Government. I phoned the Minister’s office last Wednesday to ask when we might hear further about this. The amendment was intended to be friendly and helpful. However, we have not yet heard from the Minister, nor have the next 25 pages on warm paper yet hit these Benches, so I wish to press forward on this. Indeed, the Minister said in answer to me on Report that, "““it is important for us to come back to this””.—[Official Report, 27/6/07; col. 652.]" Let me briefly reiterate the principle. We are talking about a mixed economy in the provision of an important public service. That mixed economy will consist of some with-profit providers, some not-for-profit providers and some voluntary organisations. Some of these will be national organisations; others will be regional or local. I heard an executive of one of the potentially important for-profit providers say on Friday that, if commissioning was to be local rather than regional, his company might not be interested in applying for contracts. There are some large issues at stake here to which we have not yet had a satisfactory reply from the Government. The amendment provides the Government with an opportunity to give what I hope will be a more satisfactory reply. I beg to move.