I am not suggesting that nothing happened, but I am suggesting that the problems that we are facing now are very real. We have made progress on this. We have ring-fenced funds in a time of very real problems for government funding. I am surprised that the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, did not make even a passing reference to the fact that we are for the first time dealing with prisoners serving sentences of less than 12 months. I know that the previous Government tried that and then abandoned it. However, every time a Government try to make progress with an advisory committee it should not just be dismissed. I have been working for six months with Helen Grant and she is someone who is going to take responsibility. The Secretary of State has made her the Minister for Women’s Prisons, separating it out from other prisons so there is a line of responsibility.
10.45pm
As for an annual report, I cannot make an instant response at the Dispatch Box but I will take it back to colleagues. I want to see a real change in attitudes, and some of the things that are happening will make a change. We are approaching other departments in a way that has not been done before, and if it has been done before, we are going to try again to get a buy-in. As has been said, one only has to look at the various problems for women, such as drug and alcohol dependency and mental health issues, to realise that the Prison Service alone is not going to be able to deal with it. We have got to get a buy-in from the health service, we have got to get a more holistic approach to treatment and we have got to make sure that there are the facilities available outside prison to try to deal with female offenders.
We are discussing within government the question that my noble friend Lady Hamwee raised on the details of the impact on the family, to see how best that can be managed. The Opposition may have their doubts about payment by results, but I think that the approach of bringing in the voluntary sector and other providers to see if there are different ways is really positive. I will take away the idea of an annual report, and so that it is on the record, I will write to the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham.
I have no objection to the various pressure groups pressurising us; that is what they are for. However, there is a sea change, a difference of attitude, and there is the leadership given by Helen Grant. We are going to try to take this forward and make real progress. The noble Baroness, Lady Corston, knows full well that I have consistently paid tribute to her and the landmark nature of her report, both privately and at the Dispatch Box. I want to build on it, and I want Helen Grant to have the opportunity to do the same. However, it is worth recognising the progress that has been made, and rather than passing things into statute, as has been suggested, test us by outcomes.
Perhaps the idea of an annual report is not so bad at all; I would be prepared to come back in a year’s time and try to give some positive advance on what we are trying to do with women. I do not think that you can be in this job, as I have been now for nearly three years, without feeling that the problem of women in our penal system is a disgrace that does not belong to any one Government; it is a disgrace for our society. Anything I can do to help ameliorate that in the time that I am in office, I will certainly take the opportunity to do. However, I do not think that it is done by putting things into statute, and I cannot accept the amendment this evening.