---

Offender Management Bill

My Lords, I am not being unkind. He is not in his place, but he is a good friend and he will take it in good heart. Schedule 1 refers to the role of probation trusts. There is a serious danger that negotiations with a large number of bodies will be done differently and there will be no uniform standard. The noble Baroness mentioned ““efficiency”” and ““effectiveness””, to which I would add ““standardisation”” in terms of the procedures that apply to employment matters. I have some difficulty, as the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, is a very reasonable person. Unfortunately, I do not know how he will respond to this. I can see the difficulty for the noble Baroness, Lady Gibson, sitting on the side where she sits. I wonder whether she will have the courage on Third Reading to reach a conclusion on this matter. Let me put her mind at rest. I have not heard what the Minister is going to say, but if he does not satisfy her and she does not take this matter further at Third Reading, I give advance warning—irrespective of how the House feels about whether we can tidy this up at Third Reading—that I shall move an amendment and seek the opinion of the House, including that of the Labour trade unionists, on the Government’s action on the matter.