Clause 2
Offender Management Bill
Public Bill Committees, 11 January 2007, 2:15 pm
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister (Home Affairs), Home Affairs; Harborough, Conservative)
The Minister has said that the Secretary of State will provide services better to meet the needs of communities. It may not be directly relevant to this particular amendment, but that was an interesting expression. Surely the communities themselves are better able to understand their needs than the Secretary of State. Rather than the top-down arrangement that the Government are asking us to accept—we are dealing with communities in England and Wales and have a Scottish Member of Parliament as Home Secretary—would it not be better to have a bottom-up arrangement, or have I wholly misunderstood the situation?