Government: Draft Legislative Programme

My Lords, having tried, largely unsuccessfully, for a number of years to convey to fellow clergy that a sermon with three points has two too many, I shall attempt to live up to that and comment on only one aspect—that for which I have the largest concern. I have combined the roles of Bishop of Worcester and bishop to prisons, and when people speak of rebalancing the criminal justice system, I sometimes think they are rebalancing me. I had hoped, with no great expectation, that this might be a year when the Queen’s Speech would not contain a Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. Whatever the merits of the legislation that has been introduced over the years, I do not believe that our efforts at crime reduction, victim support and the rehabilitation of offenders so that they do not reoffend have gained from this rapid-fire succession of Acts of Parliament. That feature recently led one of my colleagues to wonder whether the Government might ever be persuaded to give up legislation for Lent. If they were so persuaded, I must point out that in 2008 Lent will be particularly early, so early repentance would be required. However, this is not a speech about repentance, because I am very grateful and glad for the decision to make possible what might be called ““pre-gracious Speech scrutiny””. Whatever structure the Queen’s Speech debates might take—I am sure that they will be much the same—there will have been the psychological effect of rehearsing some of these matters beforehand, and, frankly, I welcome that. This House will also no doubt scrutinise the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill with its customary care. My reference to giving up legislation for Lent may seem rather flippant, but I believe that the publication of this draft legislative programme could, and indeed should, betoken a real change of culture—one in which, at the cost of some reduction in the pace of activity, the depth and quality of consultation and reflection lying behind legislation might show real improvement. If I am right in detecting in the Government some movement in that direction, it should be wholly welcomed, not only in this House but in all sectors of our society. Nowhere would that be truer than in the area of criminal justice and immigration. The predictable media reactions to crime stories and anti-social activity press politicians to think hastily of remedies that are thought to work quickly. Nowhere is the danger of that approach clearer than in our overstretched police, prisons and probation services. We have the means to make a difference to the lives of those who are blighted by crime, as well as those who get into trouble. Those means lie in the care of well trained and dedicated probation and prison officers, a police force increasingly discerning in its approach, and restorative justice remedies, which need only small amounts of extra resources to do a vital job. The language used in this report of rebalancing the criminal justice system must not be allowed to obscure the fact that the long-term interests of the law-abiding majority—in particular, the victims of crime—lie in perfecting and strengthening those rehabilitative and restorative elements in our criminal justice system. However, sheer overcrowding and pressure, created by rather short-term remedies, always get in the way of that, so I hope very much that in the years ahead we shall see a slow-down in criminal justice and immigration legislation. Perhaps I may suggest that this publication presages a move towards what I should like to call a ““thoughtful society””. We speak of thoughtfulness in two senses. We mean a quality of reflection which pays attention to the roots of things and takes its time to reach a conclusion, and we also mean the quality of care for others, and especially the most vulnerable. Those two senses of thoughtfulness are of course related: the needs of the most vulnerable should be the starting point of our concern about crime and disorder. Would not a ““thoughtful society”” be a good aspiration? Perhaps it would even make a good slogan, although there would be something paradoxical about making thoughtfulness into a slogan, when slogans and the search for slogans are often the enemy of thoughtfulness. A thoughtful society would make progress in crime reduction and rehabilitation—slowly perhaps, but consistently. If that is what the Government are about, then, not least in the work of the independent monitoring boards over whose national council I shall shortly have the honour to preside, they may count on our every possible assistance. I hope that the initiative of publishing a draft programme of legislation will help to promote a society that is thoughtful in both senses and in every part.