Justice Week 8-12 December 2008

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 May 30, 2007 12:26 PM