Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:00 pm on 16 October 2007.
Christine Lawrie: Obviously, various checks and balances are built in and there is the chance of further recall. Apart from the additional resource implications of the extra burden on the probation service—there will be an extra demand—it gives a particular message to offenders. Until recently, it was clear-cut. The licence was the prison sentence served in the community, and there was little argument about it. That was a healthy environment. Notwithstanding the fact that what you say is right, and that people can be re-recalled, it creates a kind of ambiguity, and that is a bad message to give, particularly to habitual and serious offenders. If we are going to do things about the prison population, which we need to do, from a probation point of view there are other things that it might be better to do. Recall has been such a success story and such a public protection success story that I do not like to see it watered down.