Offender Management Bill

Perhaps if I just finish this part it may answer the question that the noble Lord anticipates. Clause 4 and Clause 12 were added to the Bill at Report in the other place following a lengthy debate to meet the particular concerns expressed there. That was not because that was not our intent but because we were trying to explain that that was how this was going to work in an incremental way. It was clear that because this was the process that we had alighted on anyway, it would greatly assist to reassure other colleagues around the House that this was actually going to happen in the way that we all intended. It was for that reason that it did not come, as the noble Baroness suggests, almost at the last minute but as confirmation and consolidation. Perhaps the noble Baroness should look back at what my honourable friend Gerry Sutcliffe and my right honourable friend the Home Secretary said. To put it colloquially, the response was, ““Prove it. Put it in the Bill. If you think that it will take this length of time and you are going to do it in a graduated, considered way, what safeguard can you demonstrate that this is in fact your intent””? It was with that in mind that these provisions were introduced.