Tag: Alistair Carmichael

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2024 Speech on Prison Capacity

    Alistair Carmichael – 2024 Speech on Prison Capacity

    The speech made by Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat Justice spokesperson, in the House of Commons on 18 July 2024.

    I also welcome the Lord Chancellor to her new position, and thank her for advance sight of her statement.

    It has been apparent for months that measures of this sort would be necessary. These are described as temporary measures, but 18 months is a very long time for temporary measures. There would be a real danger of damaging public confidence in our criminal system if the measures were to be extended beyond that point.

    The answer surely has to be more than just building more prison capacity. The problem is not that our prison estate is too small; it is that we send too many people to prison, and that the time they spend there does nothing to tackle the problems of drug and alcohol dependency, poor literacy and numeracy skills, and poor mental health, which led to their incarceration. Can we hope to hear in the very near future the Government’s comprehensive plan to tackle the issue of the time that people spend in prison?

    Finally, may I bring to the Lord Chancellor’s attention the report published this morning by His Majesty’s inspectorate of probation on the failings of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough probation delivery unit? That report outlined that our duty of care to those whom we lock up should not end the day they leave custody. When will we have a response to that report?

    Shabana Mahmood

    I welcome the right hon. Gentleman to his place. On the 18-month period, we have inherited a criminal justice system in complete crisis and at risk of total breakdown and collapse. It will take some time, by necessity, for us to be able to put that right. I do not want to mislead the public that somehow these changes will have a quick effect. The system is in dire straits and it will take time to repair it. It is right that we are up front and honest about that time, and I will update the House regularly.

    As I say, this Government’s approach will be very different from that of the last Government. We will have a regular release of data, and I anticipate that I will regularly appear before Members to talk about that data, but I welcome that opportunity because it is important that the public are kept updated, and that their representatives in this place are able to scrutinise what is happening and hold us to account. We will need time for the measures to take effect to enable us to move the system to a position of greater health.

    In terms of who goes to prison, why and for how long, when we have overcrowded prisons, there is no capacity to do much other than hold people in their cells. The activity that we know is important to help people in the prison system to turn their lives around, come out as better citizens and make better choices, having made amends to society, cannot happen in deeply overcrowded prisons. That is why dealing with the capacity crisis is so necessary not just to prevent the collapse of the criminal justice system but to cut reoffending in the long term. Creating some space will allow us to introduce proposals to bring down reoffending rates in the country.

    On probation, I pay tribute to all probation staff for their tremendous work. My first visit in my new role was to meet probation staff in Bedfordshire. I recognise that they have been working in a system and a service under extreme strain and facing real difficulty. That is why we will onboard 1,000 new trainee probation officers before March 2025 to add extra capacity, and why returning the probation system to health will be a key priority for this Government.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2023 Speech on Relations with China

    Alistair Carmichael – 2023 Speech on Relations with China

    The speech made by Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, in Westminster Hall, the House of Commons on 16 March 2023.

    It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) and the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who secured the debate. I am reminded of the days when I used to have to read case reports. I would read the lengthy and definitive judgments and then I would come to one that just said, “I concur”, and I would fall on it like manna from heaven. To the two hon. Gentlemen who have already spoken in the debate, I say, “I concur”.

    I will make two points. My first is about the position of people coming here from Hong Kong under the British national overseas sponsorship scheme. Last night, I had the enormous pleasure of spending time at a symposium at the London School of Economics, run by the Hong Kong Public Affairs and Social Services Society. It highlighted the importance of understanding that for all those Hongkongers who have settled here, their arrival is not the end of the story; it is just the beginning. The trauma of leaving their home in the way they had to will have caused many other issues, and our obligation to support them did not stop when they cleared passport control at Heathrow airport.

    My more significant point is about not so much the position that has been outlined at some length, but the approach of Ministers and Government officials in response to it. Today in the main Chamber, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster managed to make a whole statement about TikTok without using the words “China” or “Chinese” once.

    Last Wednesday, in this very Chamber, I initiated a debate on genomics and national security. In his reply, the Minister responding said something quite remarkable:

    “I had been prepared to pay tribute to the work of BGI”

    —that is the Chinese genomics giant—

    “when my officials pointed out that at that point Genomics England was suffering several hack attacks from BGI each week.”—[Official Report, 8 March 2023; Vol. 729, c. 120WH.]

    I know that he was talking off script at that point. I could tell because I was watching him; I could also tell from the way the blood drained from the officials’ faces. The next day in Hansard, there was a letter of ministerial correction. It said:

    “There is no evidence of attempted hacking of Genomics England in 2014 from BGI.”—[Official Report, 9 March 2023; Vol. 729, c. 2MC.]

    Stalin at the height of the Soviet Union could not have improved on that. I have no doubt that the correction was initiated by officials as a consequence of the representations that they then had. Clearly, they were not of a mind to stand up to those representations and the pressure that was being put on them. Genomics needs to be part of our critical national infrastructure; the Government need to move on that. From what we see, the time has now surely come for BGI Group itself to be the subject of a security review by the United Kingdom Government.

    If we are to be serious about the way in which we rebalance our relationship with China, we need to get the balance between trade and human rights right. The right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) and I were both members of Cabinet in the golden age, so we have seen how it used to work. We understand that that has to change. That would be a good point at which the Government could start. If the Minster could express a view on that, I think we would all consider our time today to have been very well spent.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrian refugees arrived in the UK through the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation scheme in October 2015.

    Richard Harrington

    The refugees that we are bringing to the United Kingdom are very vulnerable people. Our prime concern is their safety and protection as they arrive in this country. We believe that one way to protect their privacy and ensure their recovery and integration is to limit the amount of information about them that we make publicly available. We want to ensure the understandable public interest in the scheme is not based on a running commentary on the numbers that have arrived.

    Notwithstanding this the Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Of-ficial Statistics. The next set of figures will be in the quarterly release on 26 November 2015 and will cover the period July-September 2015. These numbers will be updated each quarter.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-01-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff are employed (a) full-time and (b) part-time in the Extremism Analysis Unit; and at which grade each such member of staff is employed.

    Karen Bradley

    The Extremism Analysis Unit (EAU) has been established with a remit to analyse extremism in this country, and abroad where it has a direct impact on the UK and/or UK interests. The EAU is a cross-government resource, with government departments able to commission research and analysis.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-04-27.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether the application for state aid clearance for the remote Scottish islands has been submitted to the European Commission.

    Andrea Leadsom

    We are currently finalising plans and priorities for the 2016 Contracts for Difference (CfD) round and plan to announce further details in relation to the next round, including notification of State Aid to the European Commission, as soon as possible.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs’ comments of 29 June 2016, Official Report, columns 442-3, on UK involvement in rendition, what the document was which that Minister referred to as not having been received by the Intelligence and Security Committee by that date; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    I refer to my letter of correction to the House on 11 July 2016, Official Report, 11 July 2016, Vol. 613, c. 1MC.

    The letter of correction is available online at the following link:

    https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2016-07-11/debates/16071110000003/ForeignAndCommonwealthOffice

    “

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the inclusion of Scottish universities in the post-study work visa pilot.

    David Mundell

    I meet my Rt hon Friend the Home Secretary regularly and we discuss a wide range of issues.

    The Tier 4 visa pilot is part of the Home Office’s continued efforts to ensure that the UK maintains an excellent offer to attract the brightest and best to study at our world-leading institutions. Its main aim is to help simplify the visa application process for international students looking to study on a Masters’ course, in the UK, of 13 months or less. It will also help to support students who wish to switch into a work route and take up a graduate role by extending the leave period following the end of their study to up to six months. The pilot does not make any changes to the Tier 2 visa route and is not a return to the post-study work visa route, which we closed in April 2012 due to high levels of abuse.

    The institutions taking part in the pilot were chosen due to their consistently low level of visa refusals. It is a fundamental requirement of Tier 4 that education institutions who recruit international students take responsibility for them. This means the institution must ensure the student is genuine and meets the requirements of the Immigration Rules, before assigning them a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS), as well as ensuring that the student leaves the UK at the end of his or her studies.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-10-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will ensure that in any review of civil legal aid children and young people’s entitlement to legal aid will be considered.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    We are committed to reviewing Parts 1 and 2 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 within three to five years of its implementation.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2015-11-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times the UK has been asked to use the discretionary powers in Article 17 of the Dublin Regulation EC No 604/2013 since that regulation came into force; and how many of those requests resulted in the UK taking charge of an applicant under that Article.

    James Brokenshire

    We can confirm that the Home Office received 29 requests under Article 17.1 and 17.2 of the Dublin III Regulations, of those requests 14 were accepted. These figures are based on requests received between January 2014 to November 2015.

  • Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alistair Carmichael – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alistair Carmichael on 2016-01-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of people in the UK on a tier 2 visa who will not have their visa renewed when new rules requiring them to be paid at least £35,000 per annum or the going rate in the relevant UK Border Agency Code of Practice, whichever is higher.

    James Brokenshire

    The Government announced in 2012 that from 6 April 2016 Tier 2 visa holders who apply for settlement in the UK will be required to meet a minimum annual salary requirement of £35,000. PhD level roles and those in shortage will be exempt from the £35,000 threshold.

    Applicants who are not paid the appropriate rate for their occupation, as set out in UK Visas and Immigration codes of practice, cannot be granted an initial Tier 2 visa. The appropriate rate test has applied to settlement applications since 2011.

    The Home Office published a full impact assessment on the changes to Tier 2 settlement rules when they were laid before Parliament on 15 March 2012. This is available on the gov.uk website at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/117957/impact-assessment-tier2.pdf.