Offender Management Bill

This has been a remarkably sapient and valuable episode in our discussions, and I thank the Minister for the consensual way in which he introduced the amendment. I welcome the comments of the hon. and learned Member for Harborough (Mr. Garnier) and the hon. Member for Stafford (Mr. Kidney), who made some important points. The Government’s welcome acquiescence in the suggestion that aims should be set out has distorted the architecture of the part of the Bill that we are discussing. The set-up is now slightly peculiar: the meaning of ““the probation purposes”” is dealt with first. Provisions on functions follow, and the aims, which qualify the functions, come next. A bit of drafting is needed to get everything in a sensible order. The Government blow hot and cold on declaratory statements; sometimes they like them, and sometimes they do not. Sometimes they think that they are useful, and sometimes they do not. I do not want to find fault with the Minister for listening to what was said in Committee, but perhaps in the Lords the provisions could be rearranged into a more logical sequence. The hon. Member for Stafford made an important point: not only should the transition in the criminal justice system between the Prison Service and the probation service be seamless, but there should be a seamless transition in their aims, as they share the same overall goals. It would be logical, therefore, for all parts of the criminal justice system to have a common aim. Finally, clause 2, which is qualified by the Government amendment, is rather curious. Its heading reads,"““Responsibility for ensuring the provision of probation services””" but it does not deal with responsibility or duty. It deals with the Secretary of State’s function, which is to ensure that"““sufficient provision is made throughout England and Wales””" for the purposes that are qualified by the aims in the Government amendment. It is not clear at what point a function becomes a duty. That may be a clever bit of drafting by the Home Office, seeking to defend its budget against the Treasury, or the lack of clarity may be inadvertent, but next time that there is a failure to protect the public, reduce reoffending or punish offenders properly or achieve any of the other aims that have been set out, I shall come to the House to say that the Secretary of State has failed in his function of ensuring that sufficient provision is made, and we could have an entertaining argument about whether he has a duty to provide more cash to ensure that the probation service does its job effectively. The wording is slightly odd. I expect that the issue will be revisited in another place and, as a result we will have a better Bill at the end of the day.