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Offender Management Bill

I certainly support the concerns behind the amendment; I am perhaps a little ambivalent about the need for a national body such as it proposes. My noble friend Lord Ramsbotham mentioned in particular what is happening regarding women’s prisons. I make no apology for raising it, because we still have not had a debate on the Corston report, which is crucial to women in prison and preventing them going into prison. The implementation of a number of its proposals would be valuable, too, in the context of the overall prison population, applying to men and women. Will the Minister tell us when we will debate the Corston report and whether the Government have already taken account of what it said in the plans that they have already worked out? If we at least knew that they had taken on board the report’s proposals and ideas as they go forward, it would give some comfort.