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Offender Management Bill

I thank the Minister for those reassuring words. Many on this side of the Committee welcome the commitment of the current Chancellor of the Exchequer to strengthening the role of Parliament in checking the Executive, and that is one of the reasons why we are not entirely sure whether we would wish to apply the predecessor example of the NHS in this area. Nor would many of us welcome the speed and extent of the structural churning of which the noble Lord, Lord Warner, appears to be so fond. The slow and proportionate process described by the Minister is therefore extremely welcome. Last week I heard the current chairman of the Labour Party, a former Home Office Minister, give a powerful speech on the need to restore local autonomy and local democracy. There seems also to be a structural contradiction between the commitment of the current Government to that need and the idea that one sets up, abolishes or changes—sometimes for commercial reasons—bodies involved in the local delivery of services which are of direct concern to local communities, such as law and order. That is why we support pressing these amendments, and we are not yet entirely reassured by what the Government are saying.