Justice Week 8-12 December 2008

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June 28, 2007

Government Defeat in the Lords

The Government was heavily defeated in the House of Lords on the issue of national and regional versus local commissioning.

Read the debate on Hasard - see column 622

An amendment tabled by Conservative Peers Baroness Anelay and Viscount Bridgeman and by Liberal Democrats Lord Wallace and Baroness Linklater, has the effect of removing responsibility for commissioning from the Secretary of State and giving it to local Boards and Trusts.

The amendment is crucial. If commissioning were to be national or regional, the Probation Service faces extinction.

The Government was defeated by 173 votes to 131.

During the debate the Government also promised to consider bringing forward an amendment to ensure that national collective bargaining was retained - another significant advance - and conceded that all work with the Parole Board would be exempt from commissioning for at least three years.

Napo centrally will now be lobbying supportive Labour MPs to back the crucial amendment on local commissioning when the Bill returns to the Commons. This could be as early as 19th July.

Lobbying information is being sent out to members via branches over the next few days and watch this space for details of what you can do to help the campaign.

Posted by kfalcon at 11:22 AM

June 27, 2007

Bill Report Stage Today

The Offender Management Bill has its first debate at Report Stage in the Lords today. It will be discussed again on Tuesday and Thursday of next week (3rd and 5th July).

A number of further amendments have been tabled for Report Stage by supportive Peers of all Parties and Cross Benchers and Napo has prepared a briefing on the key ones. This can be downloaded below.

A list of current amendments for discussion can be accessed on Hansard - click here.

(Download the Bill as it currently stands after Committee Stage here)

Napo Briefings for Offender Management Bill Third Reading
Part I and Part II - Amendments

More Government defeats are anticipated and we will post the Hansard transcript of today's debate as soon as it is available tomorrow.

The Bill is scheduled to have its Third Reading in the Lords on 16th July. It will be imperative for Napo members to lobby their local MPs, particularly supportive Labour MPs, from early July in anticipation of the Bill's return to the Commons, which will be 19th July at the earliers.

Fuller details will be sent to members via branches once we know the position with regard to amendments.

Posted by kfalcon at 11:02 AM

June 13, 2007

Last Day in Committee for the Bill

The Offender Management Bill had it's last Committee Stage Debate in the House of Lords yesterday.

You can read the debate here

The Bill is expected to go to Report Stage in the Lords on 27 June, and a number of key amendments, which were not pushed to a vote during the Committee Stage, will be tabled again then.

Following this the Bill will go back to the Commons probably just befoe the parliamentary recess in the second or third week of July. Branches have been asked to get ready to priorities lobbying of MPs from 9 July onwards.

The latest Stop the Bill Bulletin No 18
went out to members this week. There will be a further bulletin prior to the Report Stage in the Lords.

Posted by kfalcon at 02:27 PM

June 12, 2007

Committe Debate 11 June

The Offender Management Bill continued in Committee on 11 June.

Yesterday's Committee Stage opened with debate on an amendment tabled by Baroness Anelay (for the Conservatives) which would prevent the the Secretary of State from removing the exclusion of court work from the Bill by use of a simple Statutory Instrument. Instead, the amendment said, a report on the move would have to be presented to both the Lords and the Commons and the draft order approved by a resolution of each House.

The Government lost the vote and Amendment 99 was passed by 170 votes to 125.

Read the full debate here

The Bill has one further day in Committee today.

Posted by kfalcon at 01:17 PM

June 11, 2007

Offender Management Bill, the Lords and Committee

The Offender Management Bill has now had 4 full days in Committee in the Lords and it will be debated again this evening and tomorrow (11 and 12 June). It will then move to Report Stage in the Lords on 27 June.

Concessions

The Government has conceded that there needs to be safeguards in the Bill to ensure that all probation providers are covevered by the gender, race and disability Duty. This follows amendments tabled by Peers on behalf of both Napo and Unison.

Government Defeats

The Government was defeated by 20 votes when an amendment to prevent conflicts of interest, i.e. where someone works for a private company that has a vested interest in the outcome, was successfully passed.

The Government was also defeated on an amendment which will ensure that a resolution has to be presented to Parliament before a Probation Trust is established. And it suffered a further defeat by 4 votes in Committee on 5 June on a Liberal Democrat/Conservative amendment which ensures that Probation Boards or Trusts have both a magistrate and a representative of the local council as members.

A number of key debates also occurred on:

- the purposes of Probation
- national collective bargaining
- exclusions from the Bill, and
- local commissioning

It is highly likely that most of those amendments, not voted on in Committee, will be retabled at Report Stage and pressed to a vote.

Links to the Hansard reports of both today's and tomorrow's debates will be posted on the website.

Napo nationally has produced further briefing papers on the various amendments. The two latest can be downloaded below.

Lords Briefing No 5

Lords Briefing No 6

Posted by kfalcon at 12:53 PM

June 06, 2007

Lords Committee Debate - further discussion

The Offender Management Bill was in Committee in the Lords again yesterday. Access the debate here.

Posted by kfalcon at 03:10 PM