Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
(Dundee West) (SNP)
1. What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on
the effectiveness of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
(Glasgow Central)
(SNP)
21. What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on
the effectiveness of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
The Minister for Crime and Policing ()
There are no plans to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The
principle remains that drugs are dangerous and need to be
controlled appropriately.
I am not surprised by the reply we have just heard from the
Minister. However, in Germany, the incoming Government have
agreed to join Canada and many US states in legalising cannabis,
while across Europe drug consumption rooms are operating with
positive results. As countries around us move forward, what
message does the Minister think it sends to the rest of the world
to see the UK stuck in the last century on drugs policy?
I refute the claim that we are stuck in the last century. In
fact, we launched a world-beating strategy just last week, if the
hon. Gentleman was paying attention, that proposes a
three-pronged approach on drugs, which we believe will have some
success over the next decade. I understand that the hon.
Gentleman and his colleagues often push for the legalisation of
cannabis, but I point him to the mixed experience of various
parts of the world that have done so, not least California, where
it is widely agreed to have been a disaster.
I visited a drug consumption room in Geneva, right next to the
central station in that city. Has the Minister visited a drug
consumption room? It is important to make Government policy on
the basis of evidence and what actually works in other
countries.
I have not visited a drug consumption room, although I did have a
very illuminating meeting with Ruth Dreifuss, the former
President of Switzerland who has been promoting the policy, to
discuss the issues they have faced in Switzerland and elsewhere.
While I understand that repetition is not uncommon in this place,
the hon. Lady will not elicit from me an answer that expands on
the ones I have given to her previously.
(Bridgend) (Con)
Foreign-born criminals have long used human rights legislation to
avoid deportation to their country of origin. Can my right hon.
Friend confirm whether recent announcements to reform human
rights will include the introduction of a British Bill of
Rights?
Mr Speaker
Sorry, that question is unrelated to Question 1; it relates to
Question 2. I call .
(Glenrothes) (SNP)
The Minister, as every Minister does these days, describes the
strategy announced last week as world-beating. I suggest we maybe
wait to see how it works before we make those claims. I also
suggest that he also looks at what is actually working in the
rest of the world. Can he explain why this world-beating strategy
still insists on putting the medical and health needs of drug
users in second place at best to treating them as criminals to be
ostracised and punished, rather than sick people who desperately
need to be helped?
As usual, SNP Members mischaracterise what we are trying to do.
The key feature of the strategy is twofold. First, we are ramping
up restrictions on supply, building on our success thus far,
particularly on dismantling county lines, which will have a
direct impact on drug supply in Scotland. The reason we are doing
that is that by restricting supply we believe we can create more
space for the £780 million we will be spending on therapeutic
interventions, particularly with heroin and crack users, to have
an impact. Critically, the two have to go together. If we are
dealing with a heroin or crack addict, very often they will leave
a therapeutic intervention—I am sure hon. Members see this in
their own constituencies—and walk straight back out into the
hands of a drug dealer. We need to make that less likely if we
are going to ensure those therapies stick and have an impact. As
far as criminalising addicts is concerned, large numbers of them
do commit crime. They commit crime from which there are victims.
Those victims deserve to see justice done, too.
(Christchurch) (Con)
Will the Minister be supporting my new clause to the Local
Government (Disqualification) Bill, which is coming up for debate
on 14 January? My new clause would make offences against the
Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 a ground for disqualification from being
able to serve as a local councillor.
It is unusual that the doings of my hon. Friend pass me by in
this House, but sadly that amendment has. It is an interesting
proposal, but I hope he will give me a moment to consider it
before I give him a response.
Reoffending Rates
(Wimbledon) (Con)
2. What progress his Department has made on reducing reoffending
rates.
(Eastleigh) (Con)
13. What progress his Department has made on reducing reoffending
rates.
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice ()
This Government are tackling the drivers of reoffending to keep
our communities safer. That includes the investment of £70
million this year to keep prison leavers off the streets and £80
million for substance misuse treatment services.
I thank the Lord Chancellor for that answer. Will he confirm that
some of that £70 million will go to schemes that rehabilitate,
offering long-term opportunities in both employment and housing,
because that is a successful way to keep reoffending rates
down?
We are investing £183 million in the expansion of electronic
monitoring, which includes £90 million to fund and promote
innovation, including in respect of drugs and tags. We are also
working carefully on prisoner passports, which are all about
resettlement, to make sure that we reduce prisoner and offender
homelessness, and there is a big push to encourage them to work
with local businesses to get them into work.
Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that education and
employment are key drivers in getting reoffending down and
allowing communities that are blighted by crime to heal? Will he
therefore outline to the House the progress that has been made in
the prisons strategy White Paper in this area specifically?
I thank my hon. Friend for that, as he is absolutely right: those
are two core drivers of reoffending. So in the White Paper we set
out plans to deliver a prisoner education service that will focus
not only on the big challenges we see with inmates on numeracy
and literacy, but on encouraging vocational qualifications—a step
up during their course in prison. We will be driving better
outcomes on work by implementing dedicated employment advisers in
prisons and a digital tool to match prisoners to jobs on
release.
(Bristol East) (Lab)
One way of preventing reoffending would be to make sure that
appropriate sentences are imposed in the first place, so what is
the Minister doing to ensure that pre-sentence reports are
available before prisoners are jailed or given alternative
community sentences?
I do not see these things as binary opposites; we need to see
robust punishment and robust deterrence. I am disappointed that
Opposition Members voted against the Police, Crime, Sentencing
and Courts Bill, which would end automatic release at the halfway
point. [Interruption.] If the hon. Member for Stockton North
() wants to vote against
stronger sentences for dangerous criminals, he can stand on that
record. But in answer to the hon. Lady’s question, let me say
that we are looking at all the other drivers: drugs
rehabilitation and, in particular, drugs recovery wings in
prisons; vocational educational training; and, crucially,
providing hope and the chance to get inmates into work, be it
during their time in prison or while they are on licence.
(Strangford) (DUP)
Like others, I have concerns about what help the Prisons Minister
or the Lord Chancellor can give those who have served in the
armed forces and fallen to post-traumatic stress disorder or
other difficulties. What will be done to help veterans in
particular?
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right on this. A proportion of
people are, in effect, mentally unwell and then trip up into
prison, and we know that veterans are among them. That is why I
have been liaising with the Health Secretary to look at mental
health care and provision, in the community and for those who go
into prison, to make sure that we can tailor what happens to them
during their sentence to try to give them a better chance to get
the support to go straight.
(Bromley and Chislehurst)
(Con)
The Lord Chancellor is absolutely right to say that the
protection of the public and rehabilitation are not mutually
exclusive. Does he agree that one key factor here, as outlined in
the White Paper, is early assessment of prisoners when they come
into prison to make sure that we pick up issues of mental health,
lack of literacy and drug addiction and that we have a proper
plan throughout their time in incarceration for release into the
community in a much better place than they were before? Is that
not the key issue that we need to be looking at?
My hon. Friend the Chair of the Justice Committee is absolutely
right; it is important that on early admission into prison we
evaluate all the different factors—the level of numeracy and
literacy, the level of addiction, whether the offender has a
qualification and the mental health issues—to make sure that the
offender’s time in prison takes them forward in each of those
regards and that we then, with the prisoner passports, link up
the support they will get on release. That is the way we will
drive down reoffending, give offenders a second chance, if they
want to take it, to turn their lives around, and ultimately
protect the public.
(Cardiff North) (Lab)
The Sentencing Council says that most domestic abuse perpetrators
will receive a sentence unlikely to reduce reoffending. Coercive
and domestic abuse is a hidden pandemic, getting worse every day,
and it is the hardest thing in the world to come forward and
report it. I pay particular tribute to the hon. Member for Burton
() for her courage in
pursuing and exposing the horrific case of coercive and domestic
abuse by her husband, former MP . It can happen to any one
of us. But the justice system is indifferent to the victims it
was set up to protect. I spoke to a young woman last week who
told me that her experience of the system was worse than the
abuse itself. Labour has a plan ready to go to protect and
support victims. When will this Government act?
First, I associate myself with the hon. Lady’s comments about my
hon. Friend the Member for Burton () and her experience. She
showed incredible courage.
The hon. Lady asked when we started to act. We did that when we
came into government—[Interruption.] Can the hon. Lady listen? We
have tripled the amount of support for victims during our tenure.
We will invest £150 million this year. On top of that critical
support for the independent sexual violence advisers and the
independent domestic violence advisers, we have also published a
victims law consultation, which, for the first time, will make
victims’ experience central to the functioning of the criminal
justice system. [Interruption.] I remind the hon. Lady again:
triple the amount of funding for victims during our tenure.
Child Sexual Exploitation: Support for Victims
(Keighley) (Con)
3. What steps his Department is taking to support victims of
child sexual exploitation.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice ()
Getting the right support at the right time is crucial for all
victims, particularly children and young people. The Department
has provided £150 million to victim support services this
financial year, which includes support for children and young
people. We are also consulting on a victims Bill so that we can
make tangible improvements for all victims. That will include
reviewing what more can be done to strengthen victim advocate
roles, including those supporting children and young people;
looking at joining up services better across agencies; and
reviewing standards, guidance and frameworks.
We can provide full justice and protection to victims of child
sexual exploitation in Keighley and across the wider Bradford
district only if we fully understand the extent of those horrific
crimes and, indeed, the complexities of how child grooming
actually happens at a local level. The Minister will be well
aware that I am calling on Bradford Council to instigate a full,
Rotherham-style inquiry. I ask him to join me in my calls for
that and to outline how we can support victims better
locally.
My hon. Friend is a tireless advocate on behalf of his
constituents in raising these most distressing matters. The
Government believe that it is right for the authorities in
individual towns and cities to commission local inquiries. It is
crucial that answers are provided where failings have occurred,
and that we work nationally and locally to improve services’
response to this horrendous crime. The Government welcome
Bradford’s work to do that through commissioning and
disseminating its recent review. The local authority and police
must now do everything possible to understand the current threat
and ensure that children at risk are safeguarded and offenders
prosecuted.
I also just add that, at a national level, the independent
inquiry into child sexual abuse continues to investigate public
bodies to ensure that they are doing everything that they should
to protect children.
Prison and Probation Officers: Recruitment and Retention
(North Tyneside) (Lab)
4. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the recruitment
and retention of prison and probation officers.
The Minister for Crime and Policing ()
Since October 2016, band 3 to 5 prison officer numbers have
increased by more than 4,000 from 17,955 to 22,325 full-time
equivalents. In the year to March 2021, we recruited more than
1,000 trainee probation officers and we will recruit a further
1,500 by the end of March next year.
The prisons White Paper concedes that attrition rates among
prison officers are too high,
“causing an unsustainable level of turnover in the system…
contributing to a vicious cycle of staff dissatisfaction and lack
of retention.”
With even the Prison Service’s new retention framework conceding
that low wages are key driver of attrition, when will the
Minister stand up for both prison officers and probation officers
and give them the proper pay rise the Government’s own experts
recommend?
We do recognise that attrition among prison officers is an issue,
which is why we have put in place retention toolkits in prisons,
providing governors with the support and tools that they need for
employee retention. As far as pay is concerned, the hon. Lady
knows that the economic ravages of the pandemic meant that there
did need to be a pause in pay, but now that the Department has
received a three-year spending settlement, it means that we can
commence more coherent conversations with unions and others about
what pay might look like in the years to come.
(Kettering) (Con)
I welcome the Government’s plans to recruit 5,000 new prison
officers, but recruitment of prison officers and their retention
would be made easier if the number of assaults in prison were to
come down. In the 12 months to June, there were 7,612 assaults on
prison officers, one third of which were categorised as serious.
What is being done to prosecute and extend the sentences of each
and every convict who assaults a prison officer?
Obviously the issue of assaults against our staff in all its
forms is one that we take extremely seriously. My hon. Friend is
quite right that we hope and expect that prison governors work
closely with their local police forces to ensure that any crimes
that are committed against prison staff are appropriately pursued
and prosecuted, and that sentences are handed out where
appropriate. He will know though that much of the violence in
prisons is driven by drugs, and I hope he will recognise and
welcome the work that we are doing as part of the prevention
approach to reduce drug consumption and therefore abuse within
the secure estate.
Youth Custody Estate: Safety
(South Shields) (Lab)
5. What steps he is taking to maintain safety across the youth
custody estate.
The Minister for Crime and Policing ()
The number of children and young people in custody is at a
historically low level, falling from around 2,600 in 2008-09 to
515 at the end of October 2021. Although welcome, this has
resulted in a concentrated cohort of children with particularly
complex needs. Fifty-five per cent. of children in custody last
year had been sentenced for violent offences. We are clear that
levels of violence within the youth estate are too high, which is
why we are taking a number of measures to reduce it.
Mrs Lewell-Buck
I thank the Minister for that answer, but the reality is that
youth offenders institutions and secure training centres are not
safe places for children. Two have closed after children there
suffered significant harm. At the two remaining institutions,
violent assault on children has reached 70%, resulting in
admissions to accident and emergency. Children are locked in
their dilapidated cells for up to 22 hours per day. Ofsted
described one institution as barely meeting
“minimum standards of human decency”.
This is state-supported and state-sanctioned child abuse. Why has
he not put a stop to it yet?
We do acknowledge the problems within the secure estate, although
I hope the hon. Lady will also acknowledge the difficulties faced
in handling the remaining cohort of young people. We have put in
place steps to try to improve the situation—for example,
allocating a member of staff to every child to support them with
weekly therapeutic interventions. I know that, as one of her
first acts on getting the job as Prisons Minister, the Minister
of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle
(), engaged with a number of
providers in the secure institutions to outline to them that
their performance was not acceptable.
Short Prison Sentences for Women
(Islwyn) (Lab/Co-op)
7. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of short
prison sentences for women.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice ()
We want fewer women serving short sentences in custody and more
managed in the community. We welcome the fact that, in the decade
between 2010 and 2020, the female prison population has decreased
by 21%. We have also seen a 32% fall in sentences of less than 12
months in the five years since 2016.
I raised this issue four years ago in Westminster Hall with one
of the Minister’s predecessors. Short prison sentences for women
have a huge impact on society. Children of women offenders are
more likely to be in care. Women are more likely to be victims of
domestic violence. When they leave the prison gate, they are
locked in the same cycle that brought them there. Will the
Minister now launch an urgent review of the way that women are
treated in the justice system?
The hon. Gentleman speaks with great passion on this matter and I
do understand where he is coming from, but that is precisely why
we have put in place £46 million of wraparound support over three
years for women leaving prison or serving community sentences, to
address some of the root causes, such as accommodation, substance
misuse, education, training and employment, financial management
and family relationships.
(Stockton North) (Lab)
An estimated 17,000 children are affected by maternal
imprisonment every year, yet the sentencing guidelines are
designed to ensure that judges and magistrates consider sole or
primary carer status as a mitigating factor, and research by
Crest Advisory suggests that awareness and application of these
guidelines is low. We recognise that the number of women in
prison has fallen in recent times, but with the majority of women
serving short sentences for non-violent offences, what will the
Minister do to cut these numbers even more by ensuring that the
rights of the child are explicitly considered in every case where
a primary carer is sentenced to custody?
First, may I put on record that I am sad that the hon. Gentleman
is standing down at the next general election? He has been very
constructive in our engagements to date on these important
matters.
The care of children and other dependants and the impact of the
loss of a parent or carer are well-established mitigating factors
in sentencing. Sentencing guidelines issued by the independent
Sentencing Council include as a specific mitigating factor being
the
“sole or primary carer for dependent relatives”
and are clear that the court can consider the effect of the
sentence on the health of the offender and the unborn child. The
case law in this area, particularly R v. Petherick, makes clear
that the court must perform a balancing exercise between the
legitimate aims to be served by sentencing and the effect the
sentence has on the family life of others, especially
children.
Protections for Shop Workers
(Harlow) (Con)
8. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on
improving protections for shop workers against violence and
abuse.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice ()
Everyone has the right to feel safe at work and the Government
share the concern that reports of abuse and assaults against
retail workers continue to increase. The Government have
therefore tabled an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing
and Courts Bill which will place in statute an aggravating factor
based on that currently used by the courts and set out in
sentencing guidelines. This will apply where an assault offence
is committed against those providing a public service, performing
a public duty or providing a service to the public. It will
reinforce in statute the seriousness with which the court should
treat these offences and will send a strong message to the public
that assaults of this kind on retail workers are totally
unacceptable.
I recently visited hard-working shop workers in the Co-op in the
ward of Bush Fair in my constituency of Harlow. They have faced
abuse, intimidation and often assault, and other shop workers I
have met in other supermarkets face the same experiences; that is
unacceptable. They have asked me if they can get the same
protection as NHS workers are now rightly given. Given that shop
workers provided an important public service during covid, does
the Minister agree it is important to do that?
My right hon. Friend is a brilliant champion of his constituency.
My message to those shop workers is that they may have received
abuse from a tiny minority, but the overwhelming majority in the
country think they are heroes. I am sure that every single MP
thinks our retail workers are heroes; we know the important job
they do, and to underline that my right hon. Friend the Secretary
of State with the Home Secretary and the Attorney General will be
meeting senior representatives of the retail sector today to talk
about this very subject. We are backing them in spirit and we are
backing them in law.
(Manchester, Gorton) (Lab)
No one deserves to work in fear of violence and abuse, but this
is the daily reality of many shop workers. These same workers
will now face an increased risk of violence and abuse as they
enforce new Government rules on mask-wearing and social
distancing. Scottish Labour has led the charge in legislating to
protect retail workers in Scotland by instituting a new specific
offence for attacks on shop workers. Will the Minister now commit
to doing the same in England and Wales so there is equity across
the country and ensure that it is backed by the necessary
resources to charge and convict offenders?
I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his place, as I did in the
Committee considering the statutory instrument earlier, which
went through very quickly with his co-operation, for which I am
grateful.
On the reforms, it is not just about the change to statute that
we will put in place by amending the Police, Crime, Sentencing
and Courts Bill, important though that is. I emphasise that such
reform has been strongly supported by the sector—the Union of
Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, the British Retail
Consortium and others—but it is not just about the law: we are
also putting in place the necessary mechanisms to encourage such
crimes to be reported, regaining confidence in the police and
criminal justice system by bringing the perpetrators to justice,
and looking at the root causes of abuse and violence such as drug
and alcohol addiction.
Rape Cases: Conviction and Prosecution Rates
(Bath) (LD)
10. What steps he is taking to improve conviction and prosecution
rates for cases of rape.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice ()
In June we published the interim rape review report and action
plan, which sets out plans to significantly improve the way the
criminal justice system responds to rape. We are expanding
pre-recorded cross-examination under section 28 for victims of
rape and sexual violence, rolling out a new investigatory model
known as Operation Soteria and introducing a single source of
24/7 support for victims of rape and sexual violence.
According to a recent report from the Victims Commissioner, just
1% of rape cases made it to trial. The Minister is telling me
that these new measures are trying to improve that record.
However, many rape victims recorded that their sexual history and
mental health records were “pulled apart”, so will he commit to a
radical reform of Crown Prosecution Service governance as called
for by the End Violence Against Women Coalition to make sure that
victims of rape are not treated as suspects?
The hon. Lady makes an excellent point. Given the location of her
constituency she will be aware that the main pilot we will be
holding for Operation Soteria is with Avon and Somerset police.
Let me explain to the House the importance of this pilot. Instead
of the usual single officer investigating allegations of rape, we
will instead have two officers, one of whom will have primary
responsibility for liaising with the victim. A key part of that
is to avoid the attrition whereby those who have been victims
drop out and lose confidence in the system. We want to restore
confidence in the system and show the whole country that we have
a joined-up approach to tackle the root causes and improve
investigation of all rape cases.
(Burton) (Con)
Does my hon. Friend think it is right that victims of rape and
domestic abuse should have to pay child contact costs to maintain
their abuser’s contact with their child?
Let me first add my comments to those of the Secretary of State
in terms of the experience of my hon. Friend. She has been
incredibly courageous. I am speaking on behalf of the Minister of
State, my hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (), who I will ask to write
to my hon. Friend on that specific point. I do not have an
immediate answer to hand but it does sound an important issue and
she is right to raise it.
(Lewisham West and Penge)
(Lab)
I, too, place on record the courage that the hon. Member for
Burton () has shown.
The first rape review scorecard published last week made for
pitiful reading. Just 0.6% of adult rape cases reported to police
resulted in a charge. It takes three times as long for rape cases
to get through the justice system compared with other crimes.
Victims are being told that they are lucky if they get justice
within three years. While we welcome the roll-out of section 28,
Labour was calling for this back in March. It is not good enough.
The Government have apologised and admitted that they have
failed, but it has been almost three years since the rape review
was commissioned. How much longer will survivors have to wait for
justice?
I am glad the hon. Lady raises the issue of the rape scorecards.
While it is obviously disappointing that key 2020-21 data show
that performance is consistently lower than the baseline in the
priority areas, it is important to note that these metrics
reflect the period before the rape review was published and the
action plan was implemented. But we have a choice, and it is a
really important one. We can spend our time using the scorecards
to pick out individual statistics for political point-scoring or
we can take a joined-up collaborative approach to recognise that
the whole reason for bringing forward the scorecards is to shine
light on what exactly is happening out there in the system, focus
on where the problems are, and work with the CPS, the police,
victims and victims’ groups and all the key stakeholders to
improve the whole system. That is the important thing to do. The
whole point is that by bringing these figures into daylight we
will improve the system.
Offenders in Prison: Numeracy and Literacy
(Wycombe) (Con)
11. What steps he is taking to improve the numeracy and literacy
rates of offenders in prison.
The Minister for Crime and Policing ()
We are working to deliver a transformed prison education service
that will improve numeracy and literacy of all prisoners.
Prisoners will be assessed on entry and a personal learning plan
will be created to monitor and track progress against starting
points and resettlement goals. This will include learning in
workshops, kitchens and sports activities.
Mr Baker
I am glad to hear it. Should core skills not always be part of
the prison regime for everybody who needs them? Will the Minister
continue to take steps to make sure that people’s employability
is enhanced by their stay in prison?
My hon. Friend is exactly right. Education is very often the
solution to so many of society’s problems. It is a stepping stone
towards employment, which, in itself, reduces reoffending very
significantly. He will be pleased to know that as part of our
plans we will establish a literacy innovation scheme to
incentivise new providers to work with us to deliver these kinds
of improvement programmes. We will also introduce specific
measures of progress to track how successful each prison is at
improving prisoners’ English and maths, with governors held to
account for poor performance. We agree with my hon. Friend that
these basic building blocks of education are key to future
success.
Mr (East Londonderry)
(DUP)
The reduction in reoffending rates is marked where the
furtherance of numeracy and literacy skills is ongoing in prison,
such as in my constituency in Magilligan prison. Will the
Minister, in any discussions that he has with the relevant
devolved Justice Minister in Northern Ireland, re-emphasise the
need for support for prisons that offer such facilities?
This is obviously an issue that affects all the home nations, and
I will be more than happy to work collaboratively with
counterparts across the whole of the United Kingdom, as we do on
so many issues with great success.
Child Cruelty: Sentencing
(East Devon) (Con)
12. What steps his Department is taking to strengthen sentencing
for child cruelty.
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice ()
Child cruelty requires the strongest response possible from our
justice system, and we will ensure that our sentencing powers are
the most robust to protect the most vulnerable.
The harrowing case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes makes it clear that
child protection must be at the heart of our sentencing policy.
What steps will my right hon. Friend take to ensure that child
killers are never released from prison?
I thank my hon. Friend and totally agree with him about the
appalling case of little Arthur. He is right, and in the Police,
Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, child murder will be where
there is premeditation, and will carry a whole-life order as its
starting point. I hope that all hon. Members across the House
will join us in supporting that measure. May I also mention
Tony’s law, which we are introducing to increase the penalties
for causing death and causing serious injury from child
cruelty.
Offenders: Illegal Drug Addiction
(Clwyd South) (Con)
14. What plans his Department has to support offenders to end an
illegal drug addiction.
The Minister for Crime and Policing ()
Our landmark cross-Government drugs strategy sets out an
ambitious long-term vision and includes £780 million of
additional investment in treatment and recovery—the largest ever
single increase. This will increase and improve treatment
services, including providing 950 additional drug and alcohol
criminal justice workers. The specialist drug and alcohol workers
will give the police, courts and probation the facilities that
they need to assess offenders and give sentencers confidence that
they can make greater use of community sentences, because they
will know that the treatment will be available.
The police in Clwyd South and Wrexham deserve great credit for
their work in breaking up county lines in north Wales. Will the
Minister please provide more information about the other main
aspect of the Prime Minister’s 10-year drug strategy, the £780
million devoted to new approaches to treatments, and how that
will be put into effect in Clwyd South and elsewhere in the
UK?
I am pleased that my hon. Friend is seeing the impact in his
constituency of the remarkable work that his police force have
been doing, mainly with Merseyside police, who are the chief
exporter to his part of the world of that appalling practice of
county lines. We have indeed been remarkably successful in
driving the numbers down, but if we are to make that a permanent
reduction we need to reduce the demand for those drugs,
particularly from heroin and crack addicts. So we will be
spending significant amounts of money, as he outlined, on
treating their addiction, as well as making sure that they face
the consequences of their crimes. That money will be channelled
through local authorities. It will take time for them to rebuild
and retrain the people required to deliver those services, but I
am confident that over the next 10 years we will make a
significant difference.
Road Traffic Offences: Sentencing Guidelines
(Batley and Spen) (Lab)
15. What steps he is taking to review the sentencing guidelines
for people convicted of road traffic offences.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice ()
The Government take road safety very seriously and I commend the
hon. Lady for her campaign to tackle bad driving and improve road
safety through, I believe, a parliamentary petition. I want to
reassure her that this Government want to see safer roads for all
users. That is why, in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts
Bill, we are increasing from 14 years to life imprisonment the
maximum penalties for causing death by dangerous driving and for
causing death by careless driving when under the influence of
drink or drugs. As for sentencing guidelines, these are produced
by the Sentencing Council, which is independent of Parliament and
Government.
I welcome that response. Road safety is a huge issue for people
in Batley and Spen, so I have launched a petition to the House
calling for additional support, resources and funding. I also
recently attended a local memorial service for victims of road
traffic incidents. Does the Minister agree that as part of the
review into road traffic offences, we must put victims and their
support at the heart of any strategy?
The hon. Lady is absolutely right. I congratulate her on
championing those issues. Many hon. Members raise their harrowing
cases of serious road traffic incidents at Justice questions. In
addition to the increase from 14 years to life for the offences I
referred to, in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, we
are also creating a new offence of causing serious injury by
careless driving. In Government amendments, we will increase from
two years to five years the minimum period of disqualification
from driving for offenders convicted of causing death by
dangerous driving or causing death by careless driving when under
the influence of drink or drugs. That sends a strong signal that
we want to put victims first, which is why we are bringing
forward those changes.
Court Cases Backlog
(South East Cornwall)
(Con)
16. What steps his Department is taking to reduce the backlog of
cases in the court system.
(Denton and Reddish)
(Lab)
20. What estimate he has made of the length of time required to
clear the backlog of Crown court cases resulting from the
covid-19 outbreak.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice ()
We are already seeing the results of our efforts to tackle the
impact of the pandemic on our justice system. Outstanding cases
in magistrates courts are falling and are close to recovering to
pre-pandemic levels. In the Crown court, the backlog is
stabilising. The spending review provides an extra £477 million
for the criminal justice system, which will allow us to reduce
Crown court backlogs caused by the pandemic from about 60,000
today to an estimated 53,000 by March 2025.
Mrs Murray
What steps is my hon. Friend taking to ensure that evidence is
not compromised by the passage of time if there is a delay?
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Since 2000, outstanding
cases in the Crown court have never been below 30,000, so it is
inherent in the criminal justice system that some cases take
time. It is important that we consider how to preserve evidence
and section 28 is a key part of that. Since November 2020,
vulnerable witnesses have had the option to pre-record
cross-examination evidence in advance of a trial. In September,
we extended the pilot to allow intimidated witnesses to
pre-record their cross-examination evidence to a further four
Crown courts. We recently set out that we want to go much further
and roll it out to all Crown courts.
Reducing the Crown court backlog to 53,000 still does not take it
back to pre-pandemic levels. We cannot just blame covid for the
backlog, because in the year before the pandemic, it grew by 23%.
Does the Minister regret the Ministry of Justice’s decision to
slash sitting days in 2019?
The key point is that we have lifted and removed the limit on
sitting days in the Crown court for the moment. In February 2010,
the last comparable full month when the Labour party was in
power, the backlog in the Crown court was about 48,000. It was
40,000 in the month before we went into the first full lockdown.
As anyone in the court system knows—our professionals and our
judiciary—the pandemic has had a huge impact.
We are confident that we have a wide package of positive steps
that we are bringing forward, including the funding that I just
announced plus the steps in the Judicial Review and Courts Bill
that will see more cases moved from Crown court to magistrates
court. Perhaps with a new shadow spokesman—I welcome him to his
position—the Opposition will finally accept the importance of
those measures and join us in supporting the Bill on Third
Reading.
Violence Against Women and Girls
(Sheffield, Brightside and
Hillsborough) (Lab)
17. What steps his Department is taking to tackle violence
against women and girls.
(Sevenoaks) (Con)
19. What steps he is taking to protect women and girls from
violent and sexual offenders.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department ()
We have introduced legislation to tackle crimes including
stalking, forced marriage and female genital mutilation in the
Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts
Bill will also introduce measures to crack down on serious
violent and sexual offenders, including by ensuring that the most
serious sexual and violent offenders spend longer in prison; to
reform pre-charge bail to better protect vulnerable victims and
witnesses; and to enable positive obligations to be imposed on
those who pose a risk of sexual harm through sexual harm
prevention orders and sexual risk orders. The victims Bill
consultation has also launched, which will ensure that victims
feel properly supported.
Since Sarah Everard was murdered, at least 104 more women have
been killed by men. That endemic violence against women must be
met with the national urgency that it deserves. Will the Minister
take the opportunity to show that he is serious about the issue
by committing today to classing misogyny as a hate crime?
I am very grateful to the hon. Lady, who raises this very
important issue for all Members of this House. As she would
expect, this Government take incredibly seriously the issue of
violence against women and girls, and all our thoughts are with
the families of those affected. Of course, I welcome the measures
that we are taking on sentencing that I set out in my earlier
answer. On misogyny specifically, we are grateful to the Law
Commission for the detailed consideration it has given to its
review of hate crime laws. We are of course giving that proper
consideration, and we will respond as soon as we can.
Can the Minister assure me and the women and girls of Sevenoaks
and Swanley that funding for Kent’s Nightingale court will
continue past March next year? Kent’s Crown court case load
stands at 93% above pre-pandemic levels, and we know that sexual
violence crimes are most likely to be dropped due to delays. We
urgently need this court to continue.
I am very grateful to my hon. Friend, who is a very passionate
advocate for her constituents on these matters. It is worth
pointing out that more than £1 billion has been allocated to
boost capacity and accelerate recovery from the pandemic in
courts and tribunals, and we have been able to reopen more of our
existing court estate. The Nightingale courts provide additional
capacity for the Crown court either directly or by hosting other
work, which makes space for jury trials on the existing estate.
These temporary courts supported our recovery, and that is why we
extended their use until the end of March 2022. Decisions on
future spending will be subject to ongoing spending review
allocation discussions, but her point is very much heard.
Topical Questions
Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental
responsibilities.
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice ()
Over the last month, I have visited HMP Isis with my right hon.
Friend the Prime Minister, and the South Essex Rape and Incest
Crisis Centre. We have launched a White Paper on our prisons
strategy and a consultation on a new victims law. I have also met
Lissie Harper, and I have announced Harper’s law to bring in
mandatory life sentences for those who unlawfully kill emergency
workers in the course of their duty.
The Justice Secretary’s book “The Assault on Liberty” attacks the
Human Rights Act 1998 for having “opened the door” to challenges
against the Government, so in his drive to amend the Human Rights
Act, which rights does he want to stop—rights against torture,
rights against medical experimentation on British military
personnel or rights preventing discrimination against disabled
people in our social security system?
I shall be making a statement to the House on our plans for
reform of the Human Rights Act and its replacement with a Bill of
Rights shortly. I am sure the hon. Member will listen to that and
contribute.
(Delyn) (Ind)
T4. In 1976, Janet Commins was killed in Flint in my
constituency. The wrong person was initially convicted and served
a significant prison sentence. In 2016, DNA evidence came to
light that finally led to the conviction of Stephen Hough for her
death, but on a plea agreement from murder down to manslaughter,
for which he received a 12-year sentence. He is due out under the
50% rule in 2023, and Janet’s family are rightly concerned. Can
my right hon. Friend confirm what options may be available to
stop an early release and ensure that her violent killer is not
let back on to Delyn’s streets?
The Minister for Crime and Policing ()
I do understand the concerns of the hon. Gentleman and obviously
of the victim’s family. It was a dreadful crime, and I am
obviously pleased, although it took some time, that the right
person was put behind bars for it. As he will know, release at
the halfway point is automatic. However, I am happy to write to
him to outline what steps will be put in place to manage this
individual in the community.
(Croydon North) (Lab/Co-op)
The Government have closed nearly 300 courts since 2010. One of
them was Runcorn magistrates court, and two weeks ago the police
found criminals using it as a cannabis farm. While 60,000 cases
are still waiting to be heard because of a lack of court
capacity, can the Secretary of State tell us how many other
former courts are now in the hands of criminals, and does he
regret that, under the Conservatives, courts that used to hand
out justice now hand out spliffs?
I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his place. I look forward to
working with him, where we can, constructively and usefully.
However, if the Labour party wants to start suggesting that it is
tough on crime, it needs to deal with its voting on police
numbers and the mess that it has made of voting on tougher
sentences. I remind the hon. Gentleman that we have trebled
funding for victim support.
In relation to the courts backlog, as part of the spending review
we are investing £477 million in the criminal justice system over
the next three years. We have extended the Nightingale courts and
removed the limit on the number of days for which the Crown court
can sit this year. We are also using the cloud video platform,
which enables 13,000 cases to be heard each year; this is an
important lesson from the pandemic.
I am grateful for the Secretary of State’s kind words, but I
regret that he did not seem to quite answer the question, so let
us see if we can do better with this one. BBC Radio 4’s “You and
Yours” programme has exposed serious fraud relating to lasting
power of attorney. A criminal was granted full control over a
member of the public’s home and finances, and tried to sell her
home without her knowledge. The fraudster was granted lasting
power of attorney by the Office of the Public Guardian, after
filling in an official form using fake names and signatures.
Astoundingly, the Government do not require the Office of the
Public Guardian to carry out basic identity checks on people
applying for lasting power of attorney—
Mr Speaker
Order. We have to get this right. Topicals questions, by nature,
mean short answers and questions. Both of you are taking the time
of Back Benchers. If you really want to ask a question, do it
early when there is more time. Please do not use up Back
Benchers’ time.
The hon. Gentleman actually raises an important point. We are
reforming the system. If he writes to me about the specific facts
of that case, I would be happy to respond.
(Ashfield) (Con)
T5. Now then, for far too long foreign dangerous criminals
have used the Human Rights Act to avoid deportation. Unlike the
Labour party, the vast majority of Ashfield residents want to see
dangerous foreign criminals deported as soon as possible. Will my
right hon. Friend please advise us on what plans he has to put
the rights of UK residents first and those of foreign criminals
second?
My hon. Friend talks a lot of common sense, as ever. I will be
saying something shortly about our plans to reform human rights.
One thing that we can do is to avoid that kind of abuse of the
system, on top of the efforts that the Home Secretary is making;
since January 2019, we have removed close to 10,000 foreign
national offenders, and the early removal scheme in the
Nationality and Borders Bill will allow foreign national
offenders to be removed earlier.
Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)
Last week, the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department,
the hon. Member for Corby () steadfastly refused to confirm that the UK would
remain in the European convention on human rights. This morning,
we read that the UK will do so. Can the Secretary of State
confirm that we will remain a signatory and will continue to
respect the provisions of the ECHR in full?
I have already made it clear before this House that we plan to
stay, and will stay, a state party to the European
convention.
Brendan O’Hara
The former Justice Secretary, the right hon. and learned Member
for South Swindon (), warned that any attempt
to alter the Human Rights Act would make the UK less secure.
Yesterday, GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 warned that changing the Human
Rights Act would make it more difficult to fight terrorism. What
assessment has the Secretary of State made of what they have
said? As he launches his consultation today, will he commit
himself to taking very seriously what senior figures in our
security services have said?
I am not going to respond to claims or anonymous reports in the
papers about what the security services may or may not say, but I
am absolutely clear that the reforms that we will take will
strengthen our protection in a whole range of areas that have
been undermined by the Human Rights Act.
(Preseli Pembrokeshire)
(Con)
T7. The Justice Secretary is absolutely correct in his
determination to drive up the employment rates of ex-offenders.
Does he agree that today’s unemployment figures, which show a
further fall in unemployment and record numbers of job vacancies,
underline the scale of the opportunity that we have to get many
more prisoners into a job from day one, which is good for the
economy, good for business and good for the whole of society?
My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. He will have seen in
our prison strategy White Paper plans to roll out more employment
boards, which link prisons to local businesses and industries in
their communities. I hosted an employers summit to encourage
employers to come forward and ensure that the prisons are better
linked up. We are also expanding the new futures network, which
is a dedicated part of the prison service that will support
businesses to partner local prisons.
(Sefton Central) (Lab)
T2. It is no good blaming covid. The Crown court backlog
was 41,000 before the pandemic, and the wholly inadequate
announcement that the Justice Secretary gave a moment or two ago
means that it will be 53,000 after the pandemic. When will the
Secretary of State admit that the Government’s approach is simply
nowhere near that which victims of crime have every right to
expect from their Government?
I just say to the hon. Gentleman that, as has already been
pointed out, the backlog was lower before we went into the
pandemic than that left behind by the last Labour Government.
However, we are not for a moment complacent. That is why we have
invested the money and we secured the money at the spending
review, and it is why we have the Crown Nightingale courts and we
have removed the limit on the number of days they can sit each
year. I regularly consult the senior judiciary about what more we
can do. Of course, technology—in particular the cloud video
platform—can enable more than 13,000 cases to be heard virtually
every week.
(North West Durham)
(Con)
T8. Large numbers of my North West Durham constituents work
at HMP Frankland, HMP Low Newton, HMP Durham and the young
offenders institution at Deerbolt. One issue that they face is
prisoners on drugs and psychoactive substances assaulting members
of staff. Will the Minister outline what measures the Government
are taking to tackle this scourge?
My hon. Friend’s regard for his constituents who work in the
secure estate is very welcome. As he will know from the prisons
strategy White Paper, we are taking a zero-tolerance approach to
drugs, we will be spending about £100 million, and I hope he will
have seen that we recently rolled out 74 X-ray body scanners,
which have resulted in more than 10,000 positive scans. All of
that will reduce the amount of drugs, and therefore violence, in
prisons.
(Carmarthen East and
Dinefwr) (Ind)
T3. What consideration has the Secretary of State given to
the need for a specific offence or amended sentencing guidelines
for those who desecrate or conceal a murdered body, to reflect
the extra suffering faced by bereaved families?
If the hon. Gentleman wants to write to me about that and make
the case—I do not know whether his question relates to a
particular constituency case or a more general concern—I will be
very happy to look at it and make sure that we engage with him
further on it.
(Broadland) (Con)
The brilliant news on unemployment rates means that businesses in
Broadland are crying out for staff. Bernard Matthews has been
working with HMP Norwich to provide jobs for ex-offenders
immediately on their release, and it tells me that there have
been great results from that. Other local businesses have told me
that they want to do the same, so what can the Government do to
encourage such practices?
At last, a Christmas story to warm the heart. I am sure that all
those tucking into their Bernard Matthews turkey this Christmas
will not only find it delicious and a celebration of their
family, but recognise that they are playing their part in a
better future for all those individuals who are working with
Bernard Matthews, which is to be congratulated on its work. My
hon. Friend is quite right that there is an enormous amount that
can be done with the private sector to help get ex-offenders back
on to the straight and narrow. My right hon. Friend the Secretary
of State recently held a summit with employers to do exactly
that, and we will be building a network of business partnerships
across the country where businesses and prison governors can sit
down together and talk about how to get ex-offenders into
employment in exactly the way that Bernard Matthews has done with
remarkable success.
(Rotherham) (Lab)
If we are to get prosecutions of child abusers, we need the
support of victims and survivors, so I am really angry that this
Government have cut £500,000 from children at risk of child
sexual exploitation. What is the Minister doing to make sure,
through the forthcoming victims Bill, that the resources are in
place to help those at risk?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice ()
I am grateful to the hon. Lady, with whom I have worked closely
on other matters that the House is considering at the moment. The
Government continue to be a global leader in tackling child
sexual exploitation and abuse. The tackling child sexual abuse
strategy that we launched is the first of its kind and very much
cutting edge. I would be happy to have a conversation with her,
and I encourage her to make her views known as part of the
victims Bill consultation.
(Bridgend) (Con)
Foreign-born criminals have long used human rights legislation to
avoid deportation to their country of origin. Can my right hon.
Friend confirm whether plans to reform human rights laws will
include the introduction of a British Bill of Rights?
My hon. Friend is right about the problem that he has diagnosed,
and in the not-too-distant future I shall make a statement about
our plans for reform.
(Glasgow Central)
(SNP)
The Minister confirmed earlier that he had not visited a drug
consumption room in any of the European countries where they have
been operating for years. Will he come instead to my constituency
to see where people are injecting—on waste ground, in bin sheds
and in lanes away from Christmas shoppers—so that he can see what
the alternative is under his plans?
I am always more than happy to visit Members’ constituencies, as
the hon. Lady knows. In fact, just 18 months ago, I held a home
nations drugs summit in Glasgow to deal with exactly these
issues. The hon. Lady consistently and persistently badgers me on
these issues; I just wish she would apply the same persistence
and badgering to her colleagues in the Scottish National party,
who have been in government in Scotland for many years now and
have presided over the worst drugs misuse and deaths numbers in
the western world. I have committed to working closely with the
Minister in Scotland on trying to improve those numbers; I wish
the hon. Lady would do the same.
(Stroud) (Con)
When we think about the family courts, we must be mindful of the
experiences of not only families who desperately need court
intervention to work smoothly but the families who should be
nowhere near a judge and would not be if they had other support
to resolve their differences. I know that the Justice team cares
deeply about this complex issue and that welcome changes are
coming next year, so what progress has been made on the
implementation of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act
2020 ahead of April 2022?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right that a certain category of
case, particularly in respect of the private family law courts,
needs to go before a court because of safeguarding issues or
domestic abuse. Such cases account for 60%, more or less, while
the others ought to avoid going to court through the use of
mediation or alternative dispute settlement. Not only is that the
right thing to do for all those involved, and particularly for
children, but it saves the precious resource of the family courts
for when they are really needed.
(Glenrothes) (SNP)
Will the coming review of human rights legislation explicitly
acknowledge the concept of universal human rights—rights that are
ours for no reason other than that we are human beings, that do
not need to be conferred by any Parliament and that cannot be
revoked by any Parliament on earth?
I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman was making the case for
the wholesale repeal of the Human Rights Act, but we are not
going that far. We need to put in place a legal framework and
that will, of course, respect this country’s proud tradition of
freedom under the rule of law.
(Blackpool South) (Con)
The courts complex in Blackpool is due to be relocated to allow a
£400 million regeneration scheme to go ahead. The business case
has already been submitted to the MOJ, so will my right hon.
Friend the Secretary of State meet me to discuss it, get it
approved and allow the ambitious regeneration scheme to
proceed?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice ()
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that scheme. I would
be delighted to meet him; it sounds like an exciting project.
(Harlow) (Con)
Given what my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is doing
on prison education, will he support an amendment to the Skills
and Post-16 Education Bill that I plan to table to allow
prisoners to do apprenticeships, to change their employment
status and ensure that they get the minimum wage? The amendment
is backed by members of the Education Committee, and I have
discussed it with the Secretary of State for Education.
I thank my right hon. Friend the Chair of the Select Committee
for his question. I have been talking to other Members about this
important issue. If he would like to write to me or, indeed, meet
me, I would be very interested in considering his idea further
with the Secretary of State for Education.
