Justice Week 8-12 December 2008

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May 30, 2007

Progress in the Lords

The Offender Management Bill will be debated again in Committee on 5, 11 and 12 June. Progress so far has been very encouraging.

There has been a lively debate on the purposes of probation, with most contributors believing that the ‘proper punishment of offenders’ was not an appropriate role. There has also been discussion on ‘duty to consult’ and on ‘local commissioning’.

The Government was defeated on the issue of ‘conflict of interest’ by a majority of 20. The clause which was moved by the Conservatives, with all Party support, ensures that a provider of probation services cannot have a conflict of interest i.e. if they work for a tagging company or someone who runs private prisons.

Read this debate

The Government also conceded that the general race, disability and gender duties would be the Bill – again following all Party support for amendments.

Read this debate - scroll down to column 681.

Key debates

The main debates now will happen at Report Stage in the Lords, which is likely to be at the end of June, and then back in the Commons in mid-July. Key votes will be on:
- whether punishment should be included in the Bill as a role of Probation;
- whether commissioning should be local or regional; and
- whether the Bill itself should be delayed for further information, such as a business case and responses to the various consultation exercises that the Government has engaged it, to be finally published.

Posted by kfalcon at 12:26 PM

May 25, 2007

Lords Committee Debate continues

The House of Lords Committee Stage of the Bill continued this week with further debates on a series of amendments on 21st and 23rd May.

These can be found in full on Hansard via the links below

Tuesday 21 May - Part 1

Tuesday 21 May - Part 2

Wednesday 23 May

(If you have difficulty accessing these and would like a pdf of the debates email kfalcon@napo.org.uk

Towards the end of the debate on Wednesday, amendment 48 - supported by Napo - to eliminate the risk of a conflict of interest should any area of probation work be contracted out to any company that has a financial interest in the outcome, was taken to a vote. The amendment succeeded with 114 Peers voting for and 94 against.

At close of play amendment 49 had been reached. This means they will recommence on 5th June with a debate on amendment 51 on the removal of supervision from the Bill.

Napo has prepared briefing on many of the amendments - and you can download briefings 2, 3 and 4 below.

Briefing No 2

Briefing No 3

Briefing No 4

Posted by kfalcon at 04:01 PM

May 17, 2007

Lords Committee debate kicks off

The Offender Management Bill has entered Committee Stage in the House of Lords yesterday, and will now be subject to detailed scrutiny.

Further dates for Committee are 21 and 23 May and 5 and 12 June.

Napo is producing briefing papers for Peers on amendments as they come up.

Probation purposes

The first debate yesterday, lasting for several hours, was about the purpose of probation. Peers from all Parties argued that the purpose of probation had become confused, even lost, and that there was a need to re-establish the probation values of rehabilitation and reintegrating individuals into the community. The concept of punishment, argued Lord Ramsbotham, was alien to the service. This is likely to be debated again when the Bill reaches its Third Reading.

You can read the full debate here

Download Napo Briefing No 1 on the purposes of probation below.

Download file

Other amendments, drafted and supported by Napo, include:

- A duty to co-operate - Baroness Linklater (Liberal Democrat)
- A duty to consult the judiciary, local authorities, the voluntary sector and probation trusts when deciding issues of resources – Baroness Anelay (Conservative)and Lord Ramsbotham (Cross Bencher)
- A clause giving exclusive powers to Boards and Trusts to commission and taking that power away from the Secretary of State and the Regions – Baroness Anelay
- The exclusion of supervision from the provisions of the Bill – Baroness Linklater
- Diversity (An amendment to ensure that all providers of probation services implement the Race Equality Duty under section 71(1) of the Race Relations Act) – Barones Anelay
- A condition that all providers of probation services, not just Boards and Trusts, shall have a duty to reduce re-offending
- The introduction of the concept of best value into contract letting - Baroness Gibson and Baroness Turner (Labour)
- A condition that all providers of probation must train probation staff – Lord Judd (Labour), Baroness Howe (Cross Bencher)and Lord Ramsbotham, Baroness Anelay, and Baroness Linklater
- An amendment that all providers of probation services must adhere to minimum standards in the provision of reports and other probation matters – Conservatives and cross-benchers.
- A clause to rename ‘approved premises’ as ‘bail hostels’ –Conservatives.
- The removal of the Statutory Instrument which would have given the Secretary of State the power to contract out court work – Conservatives.
- An amendment to keep national collective bargaining with the Secretary of State rather than transferring the determination of terms and conditions to Boards and Trusts – Baroness Gibson

Watch this space for further briefings

Posted by kfalcon at 04:33 PM