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Offender Management

May I follow the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Mr. Gerrard) made? I am convinced that front-line probation and prison staff share the Home Secretary’s objectives and that they will welcome his statement about partnership and co-operative working. However, as my right hon. Friend knows, there has been an underlying concern for the past two years that the Government seek large-scale or wholesale privatisation, especially of the probation service, but also of the Prison Service. Will he make it clear that that is not the Government’s objective? Will he give us some indication of the scale, range and nature of the private sector involvement that he envisages?