Police and Justice Bill

First, there is no question of diluting the powers. That would be a mistake, and I agree with the implication of my hon. Friend’s suggestion in that regard. Secondly, I certainly do not believe that the new inspectorate will be blander than the existing one. The interrelationship between prisons, probation, prosecution, police and others is an important one. I know that, from my hon. Friend’s experience as Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, among other things, he understands how the discontinuities in the Home Office agencies have often given rise to problems. One purpose of the unified inspection regime is to deal with that. My hon. Friend’s point is serious and it reflects concerns raised by Her Majesty’s chief inspector of prisons. I pay particular tribute to Anne Owers and her team for the work they have done in making clear and creative statements about how detention takes place, and indeed to her predecessors, but I believe that the joint inspectorate will be capable of dealing effectively with precisely those concerns. I give the commitment, as I have to others, that if this matter wants to be debated further in Committee, it can be. I do not think that the fears my hon. Friend expresses are well founded, although I respect his experience in relation to what he says.