Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I think my noble friend is saying that the wording in the Bill has not been agreed with the POA. That is right. The joint industrial relations procedural agreement—or JIRPA, as it is so eloquently known—of January 2005 includes an express undertaking by the Prison Officers’ Association not to, "““induce, authorise or support any form of industrial action by any of its members relating to a dispute concerning any matter, whether covered by””," this agreement ““or otherwise””. The Bill therefore reflects the agreement. Surely we must have that safeguard for the good order of prisons. I reiterate what I said earlier: of course we would much prefer there to be agreement in the future. That is why there is the power in Clause 190 to, "““suspend the operation of section 127””." After we have debated this group of amendments, I will come to my government amendment to Clause 190(3) and the way in which an order may be made to suspend the operation of Section 127. We resist the argument behind my noble friend’s second amendment that an order is needed to bring these clauses into effect. In essence, at the end of extensive debate on the Bill in your Lordships’ House and in another place, the measures will have been debated at great length, so it would not be an appropriate use of parliamentary time to duplicate that debate immediately following Royal Assent. One must recognise the timetable that we are up against. That is why noble Lords have been tolerant in response to the Government’s request for the Bill to be taken forward in a certain way. The Government have taken some clauses out of the Bill to enable that to happen, and in doing so I have had the honour of speaking to your Lordships’ House on a number of occasions. The other practical problem with my noble friend’s amendment is that it would delay the implementation of the measures until a resolution had been passed. Inevitably, that would mean that the measures would not come into effect until after 8 May, when the current voluntary agreement expires. I end by reiterating that I very much wish that we were not debating this issue today. It is a matter of great regret that the joint agreement notice has been served and is due to end in a few weeks. I agree that we need to search for a way forward to do whatever we can to ensure that the relationship between the Prison Service and prison officers is the most constructive one. In the light of events last summer, however, it is important that this provision is on the statute book.