I beg to move amendment No. 32, in clause 10, page 6, line 40, at end insert—

‘(h) representatives of local authorities’.

The amendment seeks to ensure that local authorities are included in the important exercise of data sharing. I would like to explain why I think the amendment is needed and would improve the Bill. All hon. Members would agree that sharing data among relevant organisations is an excellent idea, not least as an essential step towards joined-up service delivery at the local level. I know that joined-up thinking and service delivery is an issue close to the Government’s heart. I also hope that it is not contentious to say that local government plays a vital role in the rehabilitation of offenders, but to perform that vital role effectively it needs to be fully involved in the system.

In 2005, the Local Government Association surveyed local authorities and discovered that only3 per cent. of them were informed when prisoners were released into the community, which is a very worrying statistic. Such information on prisoner release is vital if local authorities are to perform the effective role in offender management that I am sure we all want to see.

Many local authorities provide excellent services that help offenders with housing, advice on benefits, treatment for drug and alcohol addiction, employment advice and training opportunities, and all those services can help to reduce reoffending. The 2005 report by the LGA, “Going straight”, found, not surprisingly, that being in employment reduced the risk of reoffending by between one third and 50 per cent. Having stable accommodation also reduces the risk of reoffending by a fifth. Once ex-prisoners are in stable accommodation, over three times as many find employment as those without an address. However, the report also found that only a third of offenders have stable accommodation on release, and they canface significant difficulties—as we would all acknowledge—in securing it. That figure needs to rise and, without the integration of local authorities into the probation system, that will not happen. I ask the Minister to respond to the point about the value that local authorities offer in the current probation system, and how that value will be preserved.

Education and training are equally important, but half of all prisoners do not have the skills required by 96 per cent. of all jobs. Although the Learning and Skills Council now funds all post-16 education, except for university education, local authorities still contribute considerable amounts to adult education, and most of them deliver a wide spectrum of adult education services under contract to local learning and skills councils.

To establish what education service provision is needed in each local authority area, information about offenders is necessary. Again, the importance of involving local authorities in the sharing of that information is paramount, if rehabilitation is to happen effectively and reoffending rates are to fall.

The situation regarding education is mirrored by that regarding employment. Two thirds of people enter prison without jobs, and two in three of those with a job lose it—again, not surprisingly—when they enter prison. Local authorities need to establish what employment advice they can offer to offenders, for whom such help is most needed. Without being integrated into the probation system, local authorities will struggle to provide that advice to the level thatwe would all desire. Unless the vital sharing of  information that is outlined in clause 10 is extended to local authorities, their services cannot be targeted and effectively planned to include the numbers and needs of offenders.

Local authorities also play an important role in local strategic partnerships, often acting as the central point for other organisations to become involved. Although voluntary groups, where they act as probation providers, and the police, who are often included in these strategic partnerships, are included in the list in clause 10, local authorities are not. There seems to be no reason for their exclusion and I would like the Minister to address that issue, and reassure us that it is not the intention for local councils to be excluded.

If local authority representatives will not included on the list of those organisations that can share information on offenders, as outlined in clause 10, how can the system ensure that information about offenders is passed on to local authorities to ensure that the services that local authorities provide are properly planned to create the provision needed in each local area?