Offender Rehabilitation Bill, Second Reading On Monday the House of Commons debated the Government’s Offender Rehabilitation Bill, which will mean fundamental changes to the way that probation works in England and Wales. I support many of the Bill’s objectives, and in particular the measures to extend mandatory supervision to those in custody for less than twelve months, to introduce new drug appointment requirements and to ensure that supervision arrangements meet the needs of female offenders. The Bill would also amend the community sentencing framework. However, the Bill also contains proposals that include abolishing local probation trusts, handing responsibility for dangerous and violent criminals to private companies with no track record of providing probation services, imposing an untried and untested payment-by-results model and fragmenting the supervision of offenders. The Government’s controversial plans have also caused considerable alarm among experts, management, staff, the police, and MPs and the Government have failed to provide any estimate of how much their proposals will cost to implement. That is why on Monday I supported an amendment to the Government’s Bill that would have denied it a Second Reading. Unfortunately, though, the Government voted against this and the Bill will now continue its process though Parliament.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:09:27 +0000
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