Offender Management Bill

I congratulate the hon. and learned Member for Harborough (Mr. Garnier) on his success. He raised the matter in Committee and today the Minister has, in effect, accepted what he suggested should be in the Bill, so congratulations to him. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Minister on listening to the arguments and the debate, keeping an open mind and tabling the amendment on Report, so well done to the Minister. Perhaps the hon. and learned Gentleman and my hon. Friend recall that in Committee I argued that the wording was not good enough. I have not changed my opinion, so although I congratulate them both, I shall explain why I feel they should go further. In Committee I said that the way in which the probation service was being established under the Bill would leave it a rootless organisation, free from values, free from an overriding strategy to achieve its purpose and free from directions for its staff in relation to what Parliament thought they were good for. I said that we could put that right by laying down statutory objectives. The Minister has gone some way toward doing that by, as he accepted in his opening remarks, repeating in the Bill the aims of the body that is currently the National Probation Service for England and Wales. That is good, as far as it goes. I shall support the amendment because it is better than nothing, but I remind the Minister that in Committee I said that some things important to the future service were not provided for. First, because the probation service is part of this country’s criminal justice system, which does not work especially effectively, it would be useful to state in an Act of Parliament that one of the objectives of the probation service is to support the whole criminal justice system and make it more effective. That would tie in the service to a job that I consider important. Secondly, I think that probation officers, who work in the community, have an important role in educating the public about the criminal justice system; the importance of reducing offending, which we should all be pressing for; rehabilitating offenders as well as punishing them; and the role of the criminal justice system, as well as its limitations, which it is important that members of the public understand. Thirdly, I said that I thought that there should be a statutory objective on the probation service’s role as regards victims. The hon. and learned Member for Harborough chided me about that in Committee, saying that that was already included in proposed new paragraph (d), but it is not. Paragraph (d) has the objective of ensuring that offenders understand the effect of their crime on victims, so it is offender-focused, not victim-focused. The probation service is particularly well placed to have regard to the needs and interests of victims, which our party claims to put at the heart of the criminal justice system. We are missing a big opportunity to say that it is important to look after victims, and to ensure that they are valued and are given a prime position in the criminal justice system in their own right. In some Acts of Parliament, there are directions to the probation service about victims; in fact, there is one in the Bill. Back in the part of the Bill dealing with probation purposes, it states that one purpose is the provision of information to victims of crime. Victim Support, which gave Members a briefing for today’s debate, points out the way in which that purpose differs from the provision enacted in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. In the 2004 Act, there are broader requirements on the probation service. It must not only give information to victims of crime, but help them to make representations about particular elements of sentencing. Admittedly, the 2004 Act provisions apply only to serious assault, sexual offences, and some offences relating to children. Arguably, the probation purposes in the Bill are broader than those in the 2004 Act, because in the Bill there is no limitation to serious sexual and assault offences, but in a way the Bill is more limited, because it relates only to giving information, and not to making representations that influence what judges, courts and hospitals do with the offenders who create such fear in the minds of their victims. As there is uncertainty in law about where victims stand, and about the probation service’s role as regards victims, a statutory objective about that would be a helpful addition. It would assure victims that they are at the heart of our criminal justice system. I invite my hon. Friend the Minister to undertake a little more work on those points before the Bill becomes, I hope, an Act. Earlier, I spoke about end-to-end management of offenders’ sentences, and I do not want to end without saying that, given that we will eventually achieve much closer co-operation between prisons and probation, the statutory objectives would be more seamless if they included the role of prison officers, as well as the role of probation officers. Again, that opportunity has been missed, but perhaps such a provision will be included in the fullness of time. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister finds those comments helpful, and perhaps he will give a little more thought to the fact that there is still work to be done.