Offender Management Bill

I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken to this group of amendments. Some extremely interesting and important points have been made that underline the importance of the issue. I hope that the Government will think a bit more about what has been said and why it has been said before the Bill completes its passage through Parliament. I appreciate the considerate way that my noble friend replied, and I am sure that he sincerely meant all that he said about the spirit in which the words should be interpreted. However, I have been around in politics a good deal, and if something is not spelt out clearly in the Bill, what may be the spirit now may evaporate in different circumstances. I hope my noble friend will forgive me for putting it this way, but he cannot have it both ways. If he really agrees with the significance of the points that have been made—and he suggested that he did—it behoves the Government to try to find some way of being more explicit in the Bill about what is intended. A Bill is about legislation, not spirit, but the words can set the tone and the context. At the moment, it is cold and precise in traditional language, and we are embarking on a new, exciting adventure—that is the message that we have heard from the Government all the time—in which everything will be improved because of this new approach and there will be partnership between the formal governmental machinery, government agencies and other organisations. That is a tremendously exciting concept and I believe it can bring tremendous qualitative improvements in the future. However, if it is going to happen, it has to be spelt out clearly that this is not just a matter of getting agencies to deliver what the Government have decided but defining together what really needs to be done and then, as the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, and others have said, in the context of experience being able to make adjustments as the partnership goes along, rather than persevering with something which has clearly not become as tenable as everybody thought originally it would be. Given what the Minister said and the generous way in which he said it, it is terribly important that the Government should go away and think very seriously about the observations of the past 45 minutes. They should not just say, by way of a formality, ““Yes, we have listened and we sympathise””. They must recognise that, whatever their intention, the experience of the people in the front line has not been of the kind envisaged; it has been far more rigid and unimaginative, with leagues, scoring, points and all the rest. I will withdraw the amendment at this stage on the understanding that the Government were not just—I hate to say this, because I know very well that my noble friend would not want to do this—palming us off with smooth talk. We want the Government to go away, do some more work and see how they can come back with more imaginative wording that meets the point. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 39 and 40 not moved.]