Offender Management Bill

My Lords, I am very grateful to all those who spoke in this debate. I stress how much I am looking forward to the amendment to which the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, referred. I shall certainly want to associate myself with it—we have discussed it. I was very encouraged, not for the first time—I frequently am—that my noble friend understood what Amendment No. 18 was about and agreed with the purpose. If that is the case, it is not really convincing to go on to say, ““But this is not the way to achieve it””. We should be hearing from my noble friend how it could be achieved. I would feel tremendously positive about the approach of the Government, with all the expertise and legal advice at their disposal—I cannot possibly hope to assemble that—if I felt that all that involved saying, ““Yes, the Minister said that we agree; now let’s find how wecan do it””. That needs to be clarified. I would be prepared to withdraw Amendment No. 18 on the understanding that before Third Reading he will have something to say about it and that his department will do some serious work on backing up his words. On Amendment No. 24, the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, was very generous, which I appreciated; I respect her thoughts on these matters greatly. She said that we should not be too prescriptive. I do not really find the words ““the Secretary of State may make payments”” highly prescriptive; it is enabling but it is certainly not prescriptive. Now that she has alerted me to the point, I am beginning to wonder whether I should have tabled some other amendments. I am very grateful to her. Similarly, I have been told by the noble Baroness and others that Amendment No. 24 covers my point.I said in my introductory remarks that I was encouraged by Amendment No. 24—it does not, in fact, cover my point. We must put in the Bill the responsibility of the Secretary of State to ensure—I put here in parenthesis that the noble Baroness has indicated that the Secretary of State has the ability to ensure this under the proposed legislation—that what is spelt out as an aspiration, a purpose, even in guidelines, will actually be resourced. I cannot say how much frustration I come across among agencies working in the front line of social policy when aspirations expressed in legislation are not backed by the necessary resources. Here we have a chance to underline the point that aspirations must always be linked to the provision of resources. We will be debating this more when we reach Amendment No. 24. I have grave anxieties on this front, but in view of the continuing debate, I am prepared to withdraw the amendment, noting again that the noble Baroness, Lady Howe, will be bringing forward a more detailed amendment in this context. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 19 not moved.] Clause 8 [Annual plans etc]: