Karl Turner
Main Page: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)Department Debates - View all Karl Turner's debates with the Ministry of Justice
(11 years ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Chris Grayling
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and if particular issues emerge in Worcester, I shall ask the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice to take a look at them with her. We obviously do not want inappropriate and unnecessary delays in bringing young people in particular to justice.
Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)
10. When he expects to put out to tender contracts for privatising probation.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Jeremy Wright)
On 19 September, the Ministry of Justice launched the transforming rehabilitation competition. It will be open to organisations from the private and voluntary and community sectors, as well as those who are currently working in probation trusts, to bid for contracts for the 21 community rehabilitation companies that will be responsible for supervising and rehabilitating low and medium-risk offenders each year. The competition will continue during 2014, and contracts will be awarded and mobilised by 2015.
Karl Turner
Does the Minister accept that the Offender Management Act 2007 was about probation trusts commissioning services locally, rather than about the abolition of local probation trusts and the commissioning of services from Whitehall, which is what he is now proposing?
Jeremy Wright
No. I have the Act in front of me, and section 3(2) states:
“The Secretary of State may make contractual or other arrangements with any other person for the making of the probation provision.”
The Act means what it says. If the hon. Gentleman believes that the last Government passed legislation that they did not intend to pass, no doubt he will want to take that up with the former Ministers in his own party who were responsible.