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Offender Management Bill

I totally support what my noble friend Lord Dholakia said about charities, although I noted the sensible cautionary tone in what the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, said about the risk of quoting a figure and it becoming a ceiling. But the principle, which I think is the key, is to ensure that there is a duty on the probation services to include a proportion of the voluntary sector organisations and charities, however that is worded in the Bill. Without that, there will be a risk of slippage. As we debated earlier, co-operation between agencies is also a very real duty. If it slips off the face of the Bill, it will slip off people’s consciousness and affect the way that things are organised. After all, legislation is important in enunciating certain principles. If they are stated clearly in the Bill, they will be followed.