Summary
'Explanatory
Notes' to the 'Offender Management Act 2007' have just been published.
The
'Offender
Management Act 2007' received Royal Assent on 26th July 2007 and is
designed to reduce re-offending and better protect the public.
The Act provides new arrangements for the provision of probation services,
and other measures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how offenders
are managed in custody and the community.
It takes away probation
boards' exclusive statutory duty to provide probation services and enables the
Secretary of State to commission services from the best available provider,
whether in the public, private or voluntary sectors.
It also enables the
Government to focus on delivering the services needed to stop offenders
committing further crimes, raising standards and encouraging organisations to
work more closely together.
The Act also:
- Enables information
to be shared between relevant bodies and persons for offender management
purposes
- Removes some of the inconsistencies between the powers of
staff in public and private custodial institutions
- Reforms existing
offences of bringing articles into prison and taking articles out of prison
- Removes the requirement for the appointment of a prison medical
officer
- Makes technical amendments to enable more efficient management
of juvenile offenders sentenced to custody
- Introduces polygraph
testing of sex offenders on licence from a sentence of imprisonment of 12
months or more.
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