My Lords, I understand the pain and difficulty that Pauline Campbell may be in, so I will rephrase that and say that it is not a just assessment of the conditions in prisons.

The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, rightly emphasised the issue of children and Every Child Matters, and I strongly agree with her. The work that we are doing in this area is not simply dependent on what we are doing in prisons; it is what we are doing on education, with Every Child Matters and Sure Start. All those things will contribute to an improvement of the way that we respond.

What we are doing to support women who are domestic violence victims is immensely important. The programmes of specialist domestic violence courts now have tremendous results, and there has been a clear improvement in the number of women who start cases and are able to go right the way through. There is an improvement in the number of women who are now able to get orders that keep them protected. In the areas where specialist domestic violence courts operate, we do not have people coming back. The numbers of women who are killed by their partners or ex-partners are going down. Before we started specialist domestic violence courts, 120 women died every year, which is two to three women a week. Now it has gone down to 100, and it looks as if it is going lower.

The number of incidents of domestic violence may also be reducing although, with the grace of God, the numbers who have the courage to report it are going up. These are very positive things. There is much work to do, and I will obviously listen and look very carefully at the report that my noble friend Lady Corston will be issuing in December. This issue is not closed. I know from those who sit behind me, not least my noble friend Lord Acton, that it will not be closed until he and a number of other noble Lords get their way.