Offender Management Bill

moved Amendment No. 2: 2: After Clause 1, insert the following new Clause— ““Duty to co-operate The Secretary of State, local probation boards, the Prison Service and such other persons or organisations as the Secretary of State may by order designate (a ““designated body””) shall co-operate with one another in carrying out their respective functions, in so far as those functions relate to the purposes identified in section 1 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 (c. 43).”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, we return again to this issue, as promised, following our interesting and robust debate in Committee. This issue is of central importance to the way in which various agencies responsible for offender management will do their business in the wake of the changes created by the Bill. As was pointed out, there was complete agreement in Committee that all concerned should indeed co-operate. The question was whether that co-operation should be a statutory duty in the Bill. Given the consensus in Committee, I hope that the Government will be prepared to listen on this occasion. The Government’s argument rested mainly on the reference to Clause 3(3), in which the Secretary of State is authorised to make probation provision with any person and, "““may in particular authorise or require that other person … to co-operate with other providers of probation services””." It was argued that this amounted to the same position as that in our amendment. It is in fact crucially different, because a duty to co-operate is just that; an obligation to co-operate. This is important, because, as we all know, without such an obligation there is always the very real chance that there will be no such co-operation in the face of the constant competing demands on the time and resources of so many agencies in the field, and where optional commitments are the first to be ignored. We also heard how there are already precedents in other areas, such as the duties of agencies under the Children Act and the duties to promote equality under the race relations legislation, which became a reality only when it became a duty. Members on all sides of the Committee—the noble Baronesses, Lady Gibson, Lady Stern and Lady Howe, the nobleLords, Lord Judd, Lord Ramsbotham and Lord Waddington, the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, and my noble friend Lord Dholakia—adduced many powerful arguments to support this case. They brought a considerable weight of wisdom to bear, which I suggest the Government should take very seriously. I recognise and applaud some of the changes that the Government are making, such as introducing reducing reoffending partnership boards. Indeed, the noble Baroness, Lady Scotland, actually talks about being, "““in many ways in violent agreement””.—[Official Report, 21/5/07; col. 494.]" However, she should respond now on this issue, because we are far more likely to see the end-to-end offender management that we all seek through such a duty to co-operate. I also sought to demonstrate that there has beena very different outcome in Scotland, where the situation was very similar. At the outset, there were consultation exercises in Scotland and England on changes to offender management, which produced very similar responses: an overwhelming resistance to a more centralised system from both ends of the UK; and less than 1 per cent of responses in favour of the plan in England. Scotland chose to listen, resulting is eight community justice authorities rooted in their local authorities consisting of a range of statutory partner bodies, including the voluntary sector, with an additional wider range of partners. Silos are being broken down and, although it is still early days, the enthusiasm from the Minister down for this way of working is palpable. The point about illustrating this model just up the road is not to argue that it necessarily should be emulated in every respect or be dismissed because certain structures are different in England and Wales from those in Scotland, but to demonstrate what can and has been done in another part of the UK where the issues are not radically different, but where, as a result of the sort of changes that we have been advocating on these Benches, the outcomes are seriously good and the approach really worthy of consideration. It is our belief that this amendment will materially improve outcomes for the better, for better effective offender management, for the reduction of reoffending and for the better rehabilitation of offenders. We urge the Government this time to listen. I beg to move.