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Offender Management Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who was at the conference. We are talking about opportunism of the worst kind. What we have heard in today’s debate and what we have heard from the Leader of the Opposition about his commitment to law and order demonstrates the range of options that are available: on one side, there is hug a hoodie, and, on the other, there is the hon. Member for Monmouth (David T.C. Davies) saying that we should ““lock ’em up”” and throw away the key. That is the breadth of the opposition. It is clear that we have to make choices and that will mean some of us moving outside our comfort zones and changing the way in which we work. We have to take that step if we are to increase our ability to work in partnership with the providers who are best available to deliver. The hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) said that many public servants, particularly in the probation service, want us to leave them alone and that we should not do anything; we should just stay where we are and accept the status quo. That is not acceptable. Members who have contributed to the debate have said that we need to tackle reoffending. I am sure that change is difficult for everybody, but it has to happen. It is also clear to me that, for all the seeming divergence of opinion, most of us agree on the fundamentals of what needs to be done. We agree that we need to build partnerships between the public sector, the private sector and the voluntary sector. We agree that we need to maintain a professional service and that probation services are at their best when their focus is trained unremittingly on the offender. We need to protect the public and reduce offending. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Cheadle (Mark Hunter), who I understand is going to lead for the Liberal Democrats in Committee, has consistently, from a sedentary position, said that that is all possible under the current legislation, but I notice that he did not take the opportunity in the winding-up speeches to say where the Liberal Democrats stood.