Tag: 2022

Paul Scully – 2022 Statement on Government Amendments to the Online Safety Bill

The statement made by Paul Scully, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in the House of Commons on 30 November 2022.

The Online Safety Bill is a vital piece of legislation, and this Government are committed to ensuring that it does more to protect children and ensure that any provisions for adults consider the importance of free speech. On 29 November, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Michelle Donelan), issued a written ministerial statement (WMS) setting out a number of policy changes to achieve this aim.

The approach we are taking has three main aims. We are strengthening the protections for children in the Bill, ensuring that adults’ right to legal free speech is protected, and also creating a genuine system of transparency, accountability and control to give the British public more choice and power over their own accounts and experience. The Secretary of State’s WMS yesterday set out these changes in detail, alongside additional changes we are seeking to make.

Given the Bill’s stage of passage, it is not possible to make the majority of these changes at Report stage, as the amendments relate to clauses that were debated on the first day of Report. Therefore, as mentioned in the Secretary of State’s WMS of 29 November, the Government intend to return a limited number of clauses to a Public Bill Committee. This process would allow the proposed changes to go through robust and thorough scrutiny in the Commons, and would provide for line-by-line scrutiny of the amendments being made. The recommitted clauses would then come back to the whole House for debate at a third day of Report stage. A vote on this recommitment motion will take place immediately after Report stage on 5 December.

As amendments for consideration at Committee cannot be formally tabled before that vote has passed, I am therefore setting out alongside this statement indicative drafting to demonstrate the amendments we will be tabling should a Committee stage take place, so that parliamentary colleagues can consider them in detail and understand the Government’s intentions with the Bill. These amendments are substantively final and the policies that they reflect will not change; the draft amendment paper, attached as annex A, includes explanatory statements of each amendment. However, small tweaks to the drafting may be required before the amendments are formally tabled, to ensure that they are as clear and effective as possible. Amendments in the paper are based on the most recent Bill print, which follows amendments at the Bill’s previous Public Bill Committee stage.

I am acutely aware of, and fully agree with, Parliament’s desire to see this legislation enacted. I will therefore be seeking to keep the recommittal process as short as possible within the bounds of allowing proper consideration of the changes, and anticipate that should the recommittal process proceed, the Bill will be passed to the House of Lords for consideration in January. I intend to work closely with Parliament to ensure that we are able to get this vital piece of legislation on to the statute book in this parliamentary Session.

The attachment can be viewed online at: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2022-11-30/HCWS403/.

December 1, 2022
Graham Stuart – 2022 Statement on the Energy Price Guarantee

The statement made by Graham Stuart, the Minister for Climate, in the House of Commons on 30 November 2022.

I hereby give notice of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s intention to seek an advance from the Contingencies Fund totalling £3,531,500,000 to enable initial expenditure on the Government’s energy price guarantee domestic scheme to be spent ahead of the passage of the Supply and Appropriation Act.

The funding is urgently required for HM Government to provide domestic support for household energy bills.

Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £3,531,500,000 for this new expenditure will be sought in a supplementary estimate for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £3,531,500,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.

The cash advances will be repaid upon receiving Royal Assent to the related Supply and Appropriation Bill.

The amount requested provides for initial scheme expenditure only, in anticipation of Parliament voting for the resource required for this financial year through an out-of-turn estimate. Due to urgency, the Contingencies Fund advance provides the immediate cash requirement in the period between scheme start and Parliamentary approval.

Further information can be found in the “Central Government Supply Estimates 2022-23, Out-of-Turn Supplementary Estimates, October 2022” available at www.gov.uk.

December 1, 2022
PRESS RELEASE : Rishi Sunak call with Prime Minister Edi Rama of Albania [December 2022]

The press release issued by 10 Downing Street on 1 December 2022.

The Prime Minister spoke to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama this afternoon.

The leaders welcomed the longstanding close partnership between the UK and Albania and committed to strengthening collaboration on trade, investment and defence, including cyber security.

The Prime Minister acknowledged the positive contribution of the Albanian community to life in the UK, but both leaders agreed that more needed to be done to address illegal migration and tackle organised crime together.

They discussed plans to step up cooperation to address shared challenges, including closing loopholes that are preventing the rapid return of failed asylum seekers.

The Prime Minister and Prime Minister Rama looked forward to working together to deal with those issues and deepen the broader UK-Albania relationship.

December 1, 2022
PRESS RELEASE : Paedophile Paul Cartwright duped by police sentenced to immediate imprisonment after referral to the Court of Appeal [December 2022]

The press release issued by the Attorney General on 1 December 2022.

A man who planned to sexually abuse a child has been sentenced to an immediate prison term after the case was referred to the Court of Appeal for being unduly lenient.

Paul Cartwright, 56, believed he had been messaging the child’s aunt ‘Liv’ over a four-week period in which he persistently and graphically discussed sexual abuse of 11-year-old ‘Demi’. He arranged to meet ‘Liv’ with a view to carrying out the abuse but was instead met by an undercover police officer.

On 15 September 2022, he was sentenced to a 24-month jail sentence suspended for 2 years, ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work, attend 35 rehabilitation days and abstain from alcohol for 3 months. Cartwright was also ordered to register as a sex offender and be subject to the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.

Following the sentencing at St Alban’s Crown Court, it was referred to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme for being too low.

On 1 December 2022, the Court found Cartwright’s original sentence to be unduly lenient, and he was sentenced to an immediate prison term of 2 years and 6 months.

Speaking after the hearing, Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson MP said:

Thanks to police intervention no harm was caused to a child, but this tougher sentence is a better reflection of Cartwright’s clear intent to sexually abuse a child which will not be tolerated.

December 1, 2022
PRESS RELEASE : OSCE Ministerial Council Plenary 2022 – UK statement by the Foreign Secretary [December 2022]

The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 1 December 2022.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverley says the disaster in Ukraine will only end when Russia halts its barbaric war and withdraws fully and unconditionally.

Thank you, Foreign Minister Rau.

The tragic events of this year have shown the enduring value of the OSCE as a forum for dialogue, transparency, and confidence-building. Everything the OSCE does is based on the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and the non-use of force. These are the foundation stones of peace in our continent.

Last year in Stockholm, the UK and many other countries warned Russia that any attack on Ukraine would be a ‘strategic mistake’. And yet, on 24 February, Russia – with the support of Belarus – invaded Ukraine.

Our Ukrainian friends fought back with courage and tenacity, defeating Russian forces at the gates of Kyiv, repelling them from Kharkiv, and now expelling the aggressor from Kherson. Is there anyone anywhere – even in the abodes of the guilty – who would still doubt that Russia’s aggression was a strategic mistake as well as a crime?

The reports of the Moscow Mechanism have detailed the atrocities of Russia’s armed forces in Ukraine, including torture, executing civilians, unlawful detention and enforced disappearances, and countless other breaches of international humanitarian law.

No wonder that Russia tried to conceal these outrages, including by blocking the mandate renewal of the OSCE’s Border Observer Mission and the Special Monitoring Mission, by frustrating the work of OSCE human rights institutions, and stopping civil society meetings with all 57 states. The UK supports the continued OSCE presence in Ukraine and welcomes the efforts to ensure this continues. We commend the work of OSCE staff throughout the whole OSCE region who have been working in challenging circumstances this past year.

This disaster will only end when Russia halts its barbaric war and withdraws its forces fully and unconditionally from the territory of Ukraine. Until that day comes, the UK will stand with Ukraine and provide humanitarian, economic, diplomatic and military support until our friends prevail – as they inevitably will – and their brave country is free once more.

December 1, 2022
Kerry McCarthy – 2022 Parliamentary Question on Mentally Ill Prisoners

The parliamentary question asked by Kerry McCarthy, the Labour MP for Bristol East, in the House of Commons on 30 November 2022.

Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)

Way too many people who are seriously mentally unwell are still being held in prison. I know that Government guidance is that they should be moved to secure hospitals when they have been assessed as needing hospital treatment within 28 days, but that is simply not happening, so they are getting more ill, which is possibly putting their lives at risk, and that makes prisons far harder to govern. Will the Minister assure me that those people will not be among those being held in the 400 police cells and that we can accelerate the transfer out of prison of people who need to be in hospital?

Damian Hinds

The hon. Lady made two important points. First, there is quite rightly screening and prioritisation to do with individual characteristics, including individual risks, when considering where people will go and who might be in the relatively small group of people going to a police cell. Of course, there is prioritisation, with those with underlying mental health issues or perhaps at risk of self-harm going straight to prison. On transfer from prison to secure hospital and the 28-day guidance, as she will know, that will become a statutory right subject to reform of the Mental Health Act 1983 passing through its stages in the House, which is important.

December 1, 2022
Robert Neill – 2022 Speech on Prison Capacity

The speech made by Sir Robert Neill, the Chair of the Justice Committee, in the House of Commons on 30 November 2022.

The Minister is right, of course, to take this urgent action, and to say that this is not the first time it has had to be done. Does he recognise that two factors are at play here? One is the underlying upward trend in prisoner numbers over the past couple of decades. Those numbers have risen exponentially, and perhaps there is a case for us to look again at whether it is appropriate to be holding non-violent offenders in custody, as opposed to the dangerous people who we do need to lock up. Secondly, the Minister refers to the levels of investment in maintenance, but as he will know, the Justice Committee has more than once pointed out that even with increased spending on maintenance, there is still a significant backlog and shortfall in the maintenance budget. Many prison cells are therefore out of commission and not usable, when they ought to be brought back into use. What is being done to accelerate the maintenance programme to get more cells back into use?

Damian Hinds

I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for those important questions and points. He is right that the prison population has been growing of late, although it is not at its highest level ever. Part of that is because of tougher sentences for the worst offences, which I think is right and what the public expect and want. For other types of crime, it is important that we utilise alternatives to custodial sentences—for instance, drug desistance and advanced tagging, which is much improved—which can, on occasion, be better for getting certain individuals back on the straight and narrow.

My hon. Friend also rightly asked about maintenance, and accelerated maintenance. In fact, that is precisely what we have done. Two and a half times as many cells are currently undergoing capital works than would ordinarily be the case, precisely because we have brought forward some capital work to improve the estate. We are indeed planning for the future.

December 1, 2022
Ellie Reeves – 2022 Speech on Prison Capacity

The speech made by Ellie Reeves, the Labour MP for Lewisham West and Penge, in the House of Commons on 30 November 2022.

It was disappointing to have only five minutes’ advance notice of the statement today.

This is yet another crisis created by this shambolic Tory Government, and it is hard to think of a more damning indictment of their failure on law and order than the fact that they have now run out of cells in which to lock up criminals. That is hardly surprising when, under the Tories, 10,000 prison places have been lost. Not only that, but 663 police stations have closed. Who knows how long it will be until this contingency plan needs a contingency plan all of its own?

While we find ourselves with not enough cells, in response to a recent parliamentary question we discovered that over the past five years the Tories have spent more than £1 million on maintaining closed prisons—more evidence that we can no longer afford the cost of the Conservatives. Our prisons are already failing in so many areas—almost every inspectorate report tells us that. Just last week Exeter prison was given an urgent notification, with crumbling estates, dangerous staff shortages, prisoner on prisoner violence, and rehabilitation all but non-existent. Ultimately, the public pay the price and they are being kept less safe.

But that is just part of the story of this Government letting the public down, with burglars and rapists being left to roam our streets, criminals let off, and victims let down. Our communities are now less safe and secure, and people across the country are scared. Women are tired of walking down the street at night with keys between their hands. Pensioners are tired of their homes being broken into. Hard-working people are tired of being hit with fraud.

It did not have to come to this. This prisons crisis is a crisis made in Downing Street, and the result of 12 years of Tory failure. This has not happened because more criminals are being caught, because the opposite is true. Prosecution rates for crimes as serious as rape, burglary and robbery are at historic lows. The justice system stands on the brink of collapse, with 20,000 fewer police, 10,000 prison cells shut and 250 courts closed. Victims are told that there are no police when they dial 999, and then they wait years to get justice, if it comes at all.

This is a Tory Government who are soft on crime,. The Justice Secretary is too focused on fighting for his job, rather than fighting criminals. Once again, the Tories are too busy saving themselves rather than doing what is right for the country. Party first, country second; criminals first, victims second. Our country needs a Government who are serious about protecting victims of crime. A Labour Government will get more police on the streets and allow victims to get their say. A Labour Government will rebuild a justice system that does not see criminals run loose. It is time that the Conservatives moved aside and let the party of law and order take control—the Labour party.

Damian Hinds

The Government make no apologies for all we are doing to keep dangerous criminals off the street, and I make no apologies for the programme to recruit 20,000 more police officers, or for tougher sentences for the most serious crimes. It is good to report that reoffending rates are down, although of course there is further to go. It is good that prosecutions are up by 7% over the last year, and convictions up by 10%, but still, as ever, there is further to go. Our No.1 priority, as the public rightly expect, is to keep our country safe.

At no point in the past five years have fewer than 1,000 cells been available across the entire prison estate, so we have not run out of prison places. This statement does not reflect a failure to plan ahead. We have absolutely been planning ahead, and we have stuck to our expansion programme and brought forward capital works. There has been a highly unusual acute short-term surge, with increases of more than 700, and more than 800 in the last two months. This is the first time ever that we have seen that sort of increase for two consecutive months. We have a number of capacity increase options, but they are not available in that short a timeframe.

Using the established protocol with the police allows us to manage the surge while continuing to deliver that ambitious expansion. I say it is an established protocol, and the hon. Lady will recognise Operation Safeguard because it was used extensively by the previous Government before 2010. It was last used in October to December 2006, and again between January 2007 and October 2008. On this occasion we are enacting a temporary use of Operation Safeguard to manage short-term pressures, precisely to ensure that we do not run out of places. Meanwhile we are investing record amounts in prison maintenance to ensure that prisons remain safe and decent while complying with modern fire safety standards. We continue with our expansion by 20,000 places, which is the biggest growth since Victorian times.

December 1, 2022
Damian Hinds – 2022 Statement on Prison Capacity

The statement made by Damian Hinds, the Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, in the House of Commons on 30 November 2022.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I open with a sincere apology for what you have just referred to? With the way timings have worked out today, we got this wrong, and I apologise for it. I assure you and the Opposition that it was not deliberate. I appreciate that that does not help with the practicalities of this, but I want to assure you and the Opposition that this was not a deliberate move on our part.

The first responsibility of Government is to keep people safe. That means taking dangerous criminals off the streets, and to do that we must always ensure that we have sufficient prison places available to serve the courts. This Government have been decisive in our tough approach to crime. We are well on our way to the recruitment of 20,000 additional police officers. We have legislated to introduce tougher sentences for the most serious crimes, with rape prosecutions having increased by 3% between the year ending June 2021 and now, and by 49% since 2019, and we are committed to driving down the backlog of outstanding court cases following the pandemic.

We have long anticipated the prison population rising as a result of those measures, and that is why we are delivering the largest prison building programme since the Victorian era, with 20,000 additional places. We have already created over 3,100 of them, including the recent change of use of His Majesty’s Prison Morton Hall and our brand-new prison, HMP Five Wells. A further 1,700 places are due to come online with occupation in tranches from next spring with the opening of HMP Fosse Way. This is in addition to the thousands of further places that will become available through additional house blocks—for example at HMP Stocken, which is due to finish construction next year—and major refurbishment programmes across the existing estate. Just a few weeks ago, I attended a ground breaking ceremony at the site beside HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire, where we have started construction for the next new prison, which will hold 1,500 category C prisoners when it opens in 2025.

However, in recent months we have experienced an acute and sudden increase in the prison population, in part due to the aftermath of the Criminal Bar Association strike action over the summer, which led to a significantly higher numbers of offenders on remand. With court hearings resuming, a surge in offenders is coming through the criminal justice system, placing capacity pressure on adult male prisons in particular.

The public rightly expect us to take the action necessary to hold offenders who have been sentenced by the courts. That is why I am announcing today that we have written to the National Police Chiefs’ Council to request the temporary use of up to 400 police cells, through an established protocol known as Operation Safeguard. That will provide the immediate additional capacity we need in the coming weeks to ensure the smooth running of the prison estate, and to continue taking dangerous criminals off the streets. I thank the National Police Chiefs’ Council for its support in mobilising this operation. We already routinely work hand in glove with police forces across the country to occasionally use police cells to hold offenders overnight. The triggering of Operation Safeguard is not an unprecedented move. It is an established procedure that has been used before to ensure that our prison system can operate effectively and safely during periods of high demand. It last happened in 2006, and then in 2007 to 2008.

With the expected increase in offenders coming into the estate over the coming weeks, it is right that we give police forces as much notice as possible of the short-term need to use their cells, so that together we can safely and adequately ensure availability of the spaces needed. The activation of Operation Safeguard will ensure that His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service and police forces can jointly plan how and where those places will be accessed. We are working with prison governors across the estate to ensure that we safely maximise the places available within our prisons. This plan, alongside our existing plan to provide 20,000 modern places, will ensure that we have enough places to cut crime and keep the public safe.

The capacity pressure is specific to the adult male estate, and there is ample capacity in the women’s and youth estates. We have delivered on our commitments to reduce the number of young people and women in our prisons, helping us to tackle the drivers of crime by focusing on rehabilitation. The Government are working to drive down reoffending, and we are investing £200 million a year by 2024-25 to get prison leavers into skills training, work and stable accommodation. We are investing to make prisons safer and more secure, rolling out almost 7,900 next-generation body-worn video cameras to 56 prisons. In March we completed our £100 million security investment programme to fight crime in prisons, including tackling the smuggling of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones.

In conclusion, I thank the police for their support and pay tribute to the frontline prison staff and police officers who work tirelessly every day to keep the public safe. Taken together with our programme to expand the prison estate, I have every confidence that the commencement of these measures will ensure that we continue to deliver justice, protect the public and reduce reoffending, as the public would rightly expect, and I commend this statement to the House.

December 1, 2022
Lindsay Hoyle – 2022 Statement on Damian Hinds Not Providing Documents in Advance

The statement made by Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, in the House on 30 November 2022.

Before we come to the statement, I want to make the point that it is not acceptable for either the Opposition or me to get a copy of a statement at 12.59 pm. I have to say that this is not the first time, and it seems to be a continual problem for the Government in that somehow they do not like to be held accountable. Not providing a statement in advance means that the Opposition cannot take the measures that are needed to hold the Government accountable. It is not acceptable, and I say to the Whips and those on the Front Bench that you should get your act together, because you cannot carry on taking the House for granted in this manner. It will not happen, and it is time Ministers were more accountable.

December 1, 2022