Government failing to tackle reoffending crisis - Clegg

8.11.12pm GMT Tue 12th Dec 2006

Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP

At the Second Reading of the Offender Management Bill, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP accused the Government of failing to tackle the real causes behind the shocking rates of reoffending.

Nick Clegg MP said "Tackling reoffending rates is vital but this Bill is not the way to do it.

"Rather than vilifying probation officers, the Government should do more to support them. Overcrowded prisons, inadequate rehabilitation of offenders, and irrational early release schemes are behind reoffending - not the internal organisation of the probation service.

"The Offender Management Bill represents a missed opportunity. Instead of imposing top-down solutions, the Government should be legislating to empower local communities to tackle crime in their own areas."

Highlighting the mistake that the imposition of 'contestability' would represent, Nick Clegg MP said "This Bill would create a distorted, rigged market in which contracts are dished out to private contractors at the behest of the Home Secretary.

"This would be the worst possible combination of administrative monopoly, centralisation in Whitehall and unaccountable private sector activity at local level."