Offender Management Bill
9:00 am
Mark Hunter (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Cheadle, Liberal Democrat)
It is pleasure to have the opportunity to speak for the Liberal Democrats under your chairmanship, Mr. Atkinson. I, too, look forward to what I hope will be a genuinely good-natured debate.
We are dealing with some hugely important issues here. We would all agree that there are genuine concerns about reoffending rates. It is acknowledged by the public that more needs to be done to improve the situation. I am looking forward to seeing what more the Minister will add to this. Although we approach this with an open mind, we must not throw the baby out with the bath water in our attempt to improve the situation of both the probation service and the Prison Service. An awful lot of committed professionals are involved in both those services and we should not forget that during our deliberations today.