Offender Management Bill

moved Amendment No. 3: 3: Clause 9, page 6, line 25, leave out subsection (5) and insert— ““(5) In subsection (4)— ““annual plan”” means a plan setting out the way in which the person required to publish the plan proposes to carry out any specified activities during the year to which the plan relates; ““specified activities””, in relation to a person with whom arrangements under sections 3(4) or (5) are made, means activities of a description specified in those arrangements for the purposes of subsection (4) above.”” The noble Viscount said: My Lords, this is a simple drafting amendment, intended to clarify the definition of ““annual plans”” and specify the activities referred to in the amendment my noble friend Lady Anelay moved and inserted into the Bill on Report. We are grateful for the advice of the Public Bill Office on the drafting of the amendment. The Bill’s passage has not been smooth—at least, I suggest, not from the point of view of the Minister and her colleagues. However, we on these Benches, and others, will feel that many positive changes have been effected in your Lordships’ House; changes which, if carried, would strengthen the Bill immeasurably in realigning the mode of commissioning and in ensuring that the Bill itself is revised and revitalised in the light of new reports. I urge the Minister to support other noble Lords in sending a message back to the other place that these changes are for the good, however bitter a pill that may be to swallow. I thank her for her customary assistance and engagement in the debates throughout the Bill, before she moves to at least equally distinguished pastures. Amendment No. 3 represents a tying up of loose ends. The work your Lordships have done on the Bill has amounted to far more than that, and I commend the amendments made in this House to another place. I beg to move.