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Offender Management Bill

My Lords, in recognising the line that the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, has taken, I should like to quote one further sentence from the letter from the Secretary of State to Mr Neil Gerrard. It refers to the Local Government Association, which is one of the bodies mentioned in our debates as a stakeholder, particularly for local commissioning, if more responsibility is to be passed on to local commissioning and local arrangements. The letter states: "““Local Government has today made clear that their fundamental concerns about local accountability within the Bill have been addressed and that ‘the Bill should provide for genuine local commissioning and offer a real opportunity for increased involvement of other providers such as the voluntary sector, whose expertise and experience has much to offer’””." That seems entirely in line with what the Motion proposed by the noble Baroness was designed to achieve. As it has achieved it in the words of the Secretary of State, I absolutely understand the line she is taking.