Contributions
1,152 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDTopical QuestionsI thank my hon. Friend. I am very much looking forward to my meeting with the Sentencing Council later this week. As I have made clear, I am looking into the roles and powers of…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsThe law on joint enterprise has already developed somewhat since the previous Court of Appeal decision. I know that the Director of Public Prosecutions is keeping under review how…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsWe all agree across the House, I hope, that pre-sentencing reports play a vital role in ensuring that whoever is passing a sentence has all the relevant facts at their disposal. I…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsThe right hon. Gentleman raises an incredibly important point. I am discussing with the Home Secretary the full range of powers that we need to have at our disposal, and she has…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsI have already set out exactly what I am going to do. I have written to the Sentencing Council, using the powers that I have to do so, and I will be meeting it later this week. I…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsWhat I can tell the hon. Gentleman is that this Government have made faster progress than the previous Government on the deportation of foreign national offenders from our…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsThe hon. Lady raises an important point. That is why I set up the Women’s Justice Board specifically to make recommendations—I believe that these are policy choices that are…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsI notice that in all his references to letters, the shadow Lord Chancellor did not refer to the letter from the previous sentencing Minister, now the shadow Transport Secretary,…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsThe Government inherited prisons on the point of collapse and a record and rising backlog in our courts. Eight months into office, the work of restoring justice in this country is…11 Mar 2025HANSARDCrown Court BacklogWe are already tackling those issues, and as soon I came into office I increased the number of sitting days by 2,500 on what I inherited from the previous Administration. I have…11 Mar 2025HANSARDCrown Court BacklogMy hon. Friend is right to note the issue of falling disposals—in layman’s terms, the number of cases that are completed. The rate of disposals has indeed fallen in recent years,…11 Mar 2025HANSARDIndependent Sentencing Review: Interim ReportI have not yet seen the hon. Gentleman’s proposals, which may be on their way, but I will look at them carefully. He will know that the picture is complex. Even jurisdictions with…11 Mar 2025HANSARDIndependent Sentencing Review: Interim ReportAs I said in answer to an earlier question, we are holding Serco to account, and we ensured that the tagging backlog from the changes to SDS40—standard determinate sentences—was…11 Mar 2025HANSARDIndependent Sentencing Review: Interim ReportI will not pre-empt the final report of the sentencing review, but let us remember the crisis that we are dealing with. The previous Government ramped up sentences but added just…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsThe shadow Lord Chancellor’s amnesia continues, because he clearly has not done his homework; he has forgotten that his Government were consulted extensively on this guidance. It…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsThe whole House can see that the only pretence at a job is the one that the shadow Lord Chancellor is making, because he is pretending to be the Leader of the Opposition. We all…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsThe hon. Gentleman makes an incredibly important point. Fixing the problems that he notes requires work by not just the Ministry of Justice, but the devolved Administrations and…11 Mar 2025HANSARDCrown Court BacklogThis Government are funding a record 110,000 Crown court sitting days, which is 4,000 more than the previous Government funded. To bring down the backlog we must embrace reform,…11 Mar 2025HANSARDPrisons: Illegal Drug UseI pay tribute to the hon. Member for his long record of campaigning on this particular issue. It is an important point, and I will ensure that he can meet the Prisons Minister and…11 Mar 2025HANSARDPrisons: Illegal Drug UseThis Government inherited prisons in crisis: overcrowded, violent and rife with drugs. If we are to have regimes that reduce reoffending and cut crime, we have to crack down on…11 Mar 2025