Justice Week 8-12 December 2008

March 28, 2007

On to the Lords

The Offender Management Bill will receive its Second Reading in the House of Lords on Tuesday 17 April.

Meetings have already been held with Lord Ramsbotham and Baronesses Stern and Howe (cross benchers); with Baroness Anelay and Viscount Bridgeman (Conservatives); with Baronesses Gibson and Turner (Labour); and Baroness Linklater and Lord Dholakia (Liberal Democrats).

The response from all groups has been very positive. It is now highly likely that amendments will go down which will:

· Exclude supervision from the Bill;
· Retain national collective bargaining;
· Ensure that commissioning is local:
· Place a duty on probation service providers to train staff;
· Establish the core aims and principles of the Service.

Lords of all Parties are also committed to a fundamental debate about the aims and principles of the Probation Service. This will be the first major debate during the Bill’s passage through the Lords.

Napo has produced a briefing paper for Second Reading and this has been sent to over 240 Peers of all Parties with a letter asking for support.

If any Napo member knows a Peer they should feel free to also contact them. A model letter to adapt can be downloaded below.

Download model letter for Peers

Copies of the Second Reading briefing are available from branches and from Napo centrally from Kath Falcon.

Posted by kfalcon at March 28, 2007 06:41 PM