Early Removal of Fixed-Term Prisoners (Amendment of Eligibility Period) Order 2008

My Lords, first, I should make it clear that we will not oppose the orders. Secondly, I offer my congratulations to the Minister on his gall in coming to the House to say that the Government are making these changes as a result of their successful pilot schemes, and all that stuff. He knows and I know that the Government are trying to make certain adjustments to cope with the fact that the prisons are bursting at the seams. There are far too many people in them and they want to get some out to get the numbers down. I accept, as the Minister put it, that the proposal is entirely consistent with government policy. I accept that no doubt a number of pilot schemes have been looking at this issue, but the Minister knows perfectly well that the reason for this measure is, as I said, to get the figures down. That is a perfectly admirable reason because the prisons are bursting at the seams. In their Explanatory Memorandums on the orders, the Government give the game away. The two memorandums seem to be identical, but I shall refer to that on the Early Removal of Short-term and Long-term Prisoners (Amendment of Requisite Period) Order 2008. At paragraph 7.9, they explain that there will be amendments to deal with this matter in: "““Clause 33 of the current Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill””." I forgot to look at my copy of that Bill to see whether it is still Clause 33 because the Government seem to amend it so often. It is probably a different clause now, but let us assume that it is still Clause 33 to which amendments will be made. That Bill will be enacted early in May—in barely five or six weeks. But, so desperate are the Government to move forward—we all know why; the prisons are bursting at the seams—they have to move the orders and bring them into effect now. I seem to remember a call from the Government Whips’ Office asking, ““Can you take these orders some time before Easter?””. I gather that this is ““before Easter””, although Easter has already happened as far as I am concerned. We are dealing with the orders now, despite the fact that the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill will be enacted in six weeks, and Clause 33 will be Section 33 on the statute book. Paragraph 7.10 of the Explanatory Memorandum states: "““The Secretary of State is therefore amending primary legislation by an affirmative instrument whilst at the same time taking a Bill through Parliament which amends the same provisions, albeit in different ways. The rationale for using the order-making power to affect the changes to the ERS set out above is because the statutory instruments can be made and come into force well before the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill receives Royal Assent””—" in six weeks from now. As I said, we do not intend to oppose the orders. It would be comic if it were not so tragic that the Government have to act like this. They are making policy almost on the hoof purely so that they can deal with matters rather more speedily than they could do in the Bill already before them. I feel sorry for the Minister having to come before the House on a day like this to make such a speech.