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Offender Management Bill

I acknowledge the hon. Gentleman’s expertise. I intervened on him earlier, and I hope to deal with the matters that he raised if time permits. [Interruption.] I will deal with some of them now. The hon. and learned Member for Harborough attacked the Government for failing to implement the Criminal Justice Act 2003. It is not true that half the Act has yet to come into force, and that half has been repealed, as he asserted. Of the 329 substantive sections—[Interruption.] Either the hon. and learned Gentleman wants to listen to the response to his challenge or he does not. He probably does not want to do so, as he will not like what he will hear. Of the 329 substantive sections, the vast majority—275 or 84 per cent.—have come wholly into force. Of the remaining 54, 23 have partially come into force, eight are due to come into force in the next few months, and 23 sections remain unimplemented. Of those unimplemented sections, 10 relate directly or indirectly to custody plus, which the hon. Member for Woking (Mr. Malins) raised. [Interruption.] Section 43 requires an affirmative resolution, which the Government cannot obtain, and it is the subject of the Fraud (Trials without a Jury) Bill, which was introduced on 16 November 2006. Section 292 has been repealed. Three sections —161A, 161B and 264A—have been inserted. The hon. Gentleman asked me about the requirements attached to community orders. There are 12 requirements, including an unpaid work requirement, an activity requirement, a programme requirement, a prohibited activity requirement and a curfew requirement. He is right—it is complex, but it is an important and useful tool, and all the requirements have been implemented. The hon. Gentleman asked about custody plus, which is a sentence that allows an offender to serve for the first time a short custodial sentence and afterwards to be supervised in the community. Sections 181 and 187 relate to the legal framework for custody plus. Various measures allowing short and intermittent custody options for offenders will give rise to changes for the courts and correctional services, and must be implemented with the appropriate level of initial preparation. Implementation of custody plus has been postponed, because we must ensure that the probation service and the Prison Service can cope with the additional work. The hon. Gentleman said that we should not put additional pressure on the probation service. We are not doing so. We will implement the provision when the service can cope with the work that that will entail. One of the requirements attached to community orders under section 177 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 is for drug rehabilitation treatment to be considered. We were attacked for not telling the truth about the reoffending rate. It was suggested that Ministers are not telling the truth about the reoffending rate as it is unadjusted. That is untrue. Only offences committed after the start of an order and resulting in a reconviction are counted. In the past we needed to adjust the figures for offences committed before the start of the counting period when the offender was convicted within that period. We have eliminated that problem by using a new database. To all those who accuse us of fiddling the figures for the reoffending rate, and to my hon. Friends who have been using the NACRO statistics, I say that statistics from whatever area must support the weight of the argument and the available evidence. We all agree that reoffending must be tackled. That is at the core of our proposals. Nobody is suggesting that the involvement of the private sector is a panacea for all ills, or that the private sector will not sometimes face difficulties or get it wrong, just as the public sector sometimes does. But that is not the point. The point is that, overall, the involvement of a mix of providers will help to raise standards across the board and ensure that we have the right provider for the job. The performance of contractors will be closely monitored, regardless of whether the contractor is from the public, private or voluntary sector. Where problems occur, contracts enable appropriate action to be taken, including, for example, financial penalties or, if appropriate, the loss of the contract. Many points were raised during the debate, and if I have not been able to respond to them, I will write to hon. Members. I look forward to their serving on the Committee and dealing with the matter in due course. Probation is a crucial service, vital to public protection, and we have invested record sums in the sector. Despite the extra investment and the hard work, dedication and professionalism of probation staff around the country, we have still not made sufficient impact. The Bill provides the opportunity to do so. We want to make sure that we work in partnership and support the good work that is done. I commend the Bill to the House. Question put, That the Bill be now read a Second time:— The House divided: Ayes 411, Noes 91.