Offender Rehabilitation Bill — Decline Second Reading — 11 Nov 2013 at 21:50

The majority of MPs voted in support of the Offender Rehabilitation Bill^[1].

The Bill implements Government policies aimed at reducing re-offending. Many of the provisions are technical changes to probation arrangements. Notable provisions include^[2]:

• A new drug appointments condition for the licence or supervision period for offenders released from custody and an expansion of the existing drug testing requirement for licences to include Class B drugs.
• New arrangements for the designation of “responsible officers” in relation to the supervision of offenders as well as making it clear that the responsibility for bringing breach action lies with the public sector.
• New arrangements for offenders serving community orders or suspended sentence orders to obtain permission from the responsible officer or the court before changing their place of residence.
• Greater periods of supervision by probation services after release from prison.

The text of the rejected motion, the operative element of which is the "declines to give a second reading" line, was:

• That this House
• declines to give a Second Reading to the Offender Rehabilitation Bill [Lords] because the implementation of the proposals in the Bill depends on the Government’s proposed restructuring of the Probation Service;
• believes that this proposed restructuring will see the abolition of local Probation Trusts, the fragmentation of supervision of offenders on the basis of their risk level and the commissioning of services direct from Whitehall;
• further believes that the Government has failed to provide any costings for their proposals;
• notes reports that suggest the Ministry of Justice’s own internal risk register warns that the Government’s proposals could result in a high risk of an unacceptable drop in operational performance; and
• further declines to give a Second Reading to the Bill on the grounds that none of the Government’s proposals has been piloted nor independently evaluated, potentially resulting in an unnecessary risk to the public’s safety.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Offender Rehabilitation Bill
• [2] Explanatory notes to the Offender Rehabilitation Bill

Debate in Parliament | Source |