Offender Management Bill

It is fair to say that this group of amendments does not go as directly to the heart of the Bill as the previous group. None the less, they are significant and worthy of brief comment. I rise to highlight two objectives to which I hope we in this House attach importance. First—everybody will obviously share this objective—we wish to have legislation that reduces the reoffending rate and that is able to deal effectively with the problems that affect all our constituents. To that end, it is important that Ministers properly digest all the relevant reports, that we take stock of informed contributions to the debate, and that we try to make the Government and all their agencies work as effectively as possible to try to deal with this significant problem. Apart from the desire to avoid inconvenience, I cannot see why Ministers would deeply object to trying to allow and accommodate serious attempts to improve efforts to reduce reoffending rates. The second, related, objective of this place is to try to make sure that the legislation that we pass is effective and meets its own objectives. The hon. and learned Member for Harborough (Mr. Garnier) touched on the subject a moment ago. We have had several consultation papers on the subject and a number of attempts to restructure probation services. In fact, we have had so many changes that, when the Bill had its Second Reading in this House in December, it was sponsored by a completely different Department from the Department that now seeks to conclude the deliberations. We can say with some confidence that this is not a settled area of Government policy. Given that that is the case, it seems reasonable that proper reflection should take place to make sure that the legislation is effective, that reoffending rates are tackled in the best way possible, and that the Secretary of State himself is held fully accountable. For all those reasons, my party is minded to reject the Government’s position on this group of amendments and to support the hon. and learned Gentleman when he seeks to test the opinion of the House.