My Lords, with the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, introducing this debate, the most I can aspire to be is a Rosencrantz or Guildenstern to his Hamlet. I am delighted that I shall repeat some things said by other noble Lords because I believe that they merit saying again and again.

As the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, stressed, my noble friend Lord Rooker in his reply to the debate on women in prison on 28 October 2004 said of a women's justice board:

"Nevertheless, that recommendation was made and it has widespread support, but it has not been put into operation by the Home Office".—[Hansard, 28/10/04; col. 1481.]

Today's debate can be summed up in two words: why not? This afternoon my noble friend has a golden opportunity to explain why not, or, better still, to change policy and accept a women's justice board.

In Justice for Women: the need for reform, the report published in 2000 of the committee on women's imprisonment, chaired by Professor Dorothy Wedderburn, the central recommendation was,

"A national women's justice board should be established immediately as a statutory commissioning body which would resemble in many respects the national Youth Justice Board".

Wedderburn envisaged a powerful authority with its own budget and management structure to oversee the arrangements for women's imprisonment and punishment in the community; to provide the driving force to establish local centres; to develop programmes based in communities; and to ensure that prisons for women are efficiently and humanely managed to provide suitable conditions and regimes. The authority would be responsible for ensuring that programmes, whether in custody or in the community, achieve not only targets such as the number of places made available or the numbers completing particular programmes but also satisfactory settlement, integration and reduced offending.

Six years have passed since Wedderburn reported without the establishment of such a potent authority. I ask the Minister to reflect on a few developments in the absence of a women's justice board. At the end of September 2004, female prisoners were held an average of 62 miles from their homes, with disturbing implications for their children. Distance was an aspect discussed by the noble Baroness, Lady Stern.

As the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Southwark pointed out, in 2003, 30 per cent of women prisoners were reported to have harmed themselves compared to 6 per cent of men. Home Office research has found that 41 per cent of women in prison did not have accommodation arranged on release; only one-third of women prisoners who wanted help and advice about benefits and debt received it; and 65 per cent of women released from prison in 2002 were reconvicted within two years of release. There can be no doubt that a vigorous women's justice board would significantly improve that dreadful picture.

The Minister is legendary for her silver tongue. May she use it now to convince her Home Office colleagues that it is essential to set up a women's justice board forthwith.