Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Bill
Third Reading
10:25:00
Motion
Moved by
That the Bill do now pass.
(CB)
My Lords, I thank , MP for Barrow and Furness, for
his wonderful work on getting the Bill off the ground.
What is so interesting about the Bill is that we invest a vast
amount of money in putting people in prison and if, at the end of
that period, they are released on a Friday and have no family
support, friendships or relationships and cannot go to Citizens
Advice, the local authority or any of the other support services,
they often fall homeless over the weekend. We know that homeless
people who have been let out of prison have the temptation and
possibility of falling back into the crisis of poverty and the
crisis of crime.
Therefore, I am pleased that we are making this wonderful little
nugget of change to help us consider that there are a lot of
other things to do. Is it not wonderful that we can say, “If we
make that investment in somebody’s life, let’s make sure that,
when they get out, they don’t fall back into grief”? I beg to
move.
(Lab)
My Lords, the noble Lord, , described the Bill as a “nugget
of change”; that is a modest thing for him to say.
Although the scope of the Bill is narrow and specific, it will
make demonstrable change. There have been attempts to make this
change in other, larger Bills in the past, which have fallen by
the wayside, so I congratulate him, as a relatively new Member of
this House, on getting through this significant addition to the
way we manage people who come out of prison. As he said, this is
a very vulnerable group of people who are very likely to
reoffend, particularly if they are released on a Friday, so every
step, however little, matters to try to reduce reoffending. I
congratulate the noble Lord.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice
() (Con)
My Lords, I too add my thanks and congratulations to the noble
Lord, , for persevering in taking this
Bill through the House and for continuing the good work of the
honourable Member for Barrow and Furness, Mr , in the other place.
This is a simple yet effective Bill that will play an important
role in supporting the Government’s drive to reduce reoffending
and protect the public. It will ensure that custody leavers have
a better chance to access the support they need to reintegrate
into the community and turn their backs on a life of crime. The
Bill achieves that by enabling the offender’s release date, where
it would have fallen on a Friday or the day before a public or
bank holiday, to be brought forward by up to two eligible days,
so that they will be released earlier in the week. Offenders with
resettlement needs will no longer need to try to access these
services, under what may well be very challenging circumstances,
as the weekend begins and services and support stop or fade away.
The Bill applies to both adults and children sentenced to
detention. It will ensure that the relevant release provisions
exist and apply in all youth settings, including the recently
created secure 16-to-19 schools.
I am very grateful to the Members, Lords and officials who have
worked so diligently to bring forward the Bill, and to the noble
Lord, Lord Ponsonby, and his colleagues for their support and
encouragement. I am once again very pleased to reiterate the
Government’s support, and very much look forward to seeing the
Bill on the statute book.
Bill passed.
