Member

My noble friend’s amendment sets this aim out in practice. The Government intend to ease the pressure on our prisons by increasing the efficiency of the criminal justice system. This is a fine goal, but the proof will be in the product. There is little use legislating if we do not look to see whether it has worked, and the only way we will know whether it has worked is if we have the data to see what has actually happened. The Government’s measures must be seen to have tangibly decreased the rate of offending and certainly, I hope, not to have led to an increase. Only then can we consider them effective.