This amendment is similar to one that I tabled in Committee in order to give the Minister the opportunity to say more about the Government’s intentions for the future of the probation service. The amendment states that:
“Any plans to reorganise the Probation Service for England and Wales must be instituted by regulations”,
It adds that those regulations,
“shall be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure of each House of Parliament”.
Bearing in mind that in this Bill we are asked to agree to significant changes in community sentencing, which will be dependent on an effective and properly resourced probation service, the Government still cannot tell us what their intentions are for the probation service. It therefore does not seem unreasonable to agree to this amendment, which will enable both Houses to satisfy themselves that whatever changes the Government want to make to our probation service, they would not be in conflict with their objectives and changes on community sentencing contained in the Bill.
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In Committee, I asked the Minister a number of questions, to which I received neither a specific answer then nor a specific answer in writing subsequently. I drew attention to the Minister’s statement that:
“I cannot imagine that any future structure would not draw on the experience and ethos that makes it such an excellent service”.—[Official Report, 30/10/12; col. 549.]
I asked what he meant by that and pointed out that it could mean that the Government were nevertheless still looking to hand over to outside contractors large parts of the network currently undertaken by the probation service; and that the experience and ethos to which the Minister had referred would be drawn upon because he would expect significant numbers of existing probation staff to be transferred to those contractors. I asked the Minister if that was an interpretation of his comments that he would either accept as accurate or not be prepared to exclude. I received no clear answer, even though it appears that
the Government have indicated that some 60% of probation work will be put out to competitive tender.
I also asked the Minister which of the probation service’s current responsibilities the Government intended it to continue to undertake. Once again, there was no clear answer. I also asked the Minister what the objective was in looking to reorganise the probation service, bearing in mind that he had only recently said that it was “excellent”. Once again, there was no clear answer. I also asked the Minister what improvements in the “excellent” probation service the Government believed could be achieved without potentially putting at risk the quality of the service currently being provided. Again, there was no clear answer. I also asked the Minister how many staff were currently in the probation service and how many the Government envisaged there will be in future, taking into account their proposals in this Bill on community sentencing and their declared intentions on restorative justice and the role of rehabilitation in reducing reoffending. Again, there was no clear answer.
What the Minister did say was that the Government aimed to set out a vision for the future system over the next few weeks, which was not the most helpful response to the questions that I had asked. In the light of the Government’s lack of enthusiasm for answering legitimate questions about their intentions for the probation trusts and services—one does not embark down the road of reorganisation and change without having some clear view about where one wants to go and why—it seems perfectly reasonable that it should not be possible for the Government to make any attempt to reduce significantly or change the role of the probation service without Parliament being fully aware of what is going on, without the opportunity for a full debate with Ministers having to justify their proposals to Parliament, and without Parliament having to agree to those changes. This is precisely what is provided for in my amendment, which I move.