Clause 14
Offender Management Bill
3:45 pm
Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Bradford South, Labour)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue, which was brought to his attention by the PGA. I have a great deal of respect for the PGA—I have met its representatives on a number of occasions, and I spoke at its annual conference last year—and I hope that I am a friend of the PGA and in the same way as I am a friend of the Prison Officers Association. We disagree about things quite regularly, but we do so in a friendly spirit.
There is a subplot to the activities of the PGA. It is sad that none of the private sector directors are eligible to become members of the PGA, and I hope that it will remedy that. Although I have not met it about that particular issue, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has provided Members of Parliament with a suggested response to the PGA.
On clause 14, we are seeking to transfer to the directors of contracted-out prisons—