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Prisons: Carter Review

My Lords, I am grateful to my noble and learned friend. I agree with his analysis of the improvements that have taken place within the Prison Service. Yes, there are many challenges, but I know from my recent visits compared with visits that I undertook as a health Minister seven or eight years ago that there have been some real improvements. I pay tribute to the Prison Service and its partners, such as the National Health Service, for what has happened. My noble and learned friend is right about the forecast. I am somewhat of a connoisseur, having tried to forecast the number of junior doctors required. I would not claim conspicuous success on that. It is a very difficult task. That is why my noble friend Lord Carter has so eloquently and excellently suggested the structured sentencing framework. It may well be, and I am sure it is, the best way to have greater certainty about future projections. I very much agree with what my noble and learned friend said. These matters cannot be considered in a vacuum; there will always be finite resources. I go back again to what I said to the noble Lord, Lord Henley. There is no question of any fettering of the individual decisions of individual members of the judiciary. I am very happy to reaffirm that.