Tag: David Lammy

The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Justice Secretary, on 8 April 2021.

The government is letting victims of crime down by allowing the Crown Court backlog to reach more than 57,000 cases for the very first time.

A decade of Conservative cuts to courts, sitting days and the whole justice system allowed the backlog to grow to a staggering 39,000 cases even before the pandemic began.

The government must now finally listen to Labour and enact the emergency measures we have been pushing for months to ensure victims do not face even worse delays.

The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, on 24 March 2021.

A decade of Conservative cuts to our justice system has left victims waiting years to get justice if they get it at all, while serious criminals are being let off the hook.

Delays have reached an all-time high as prosecutions for serious crimes like rape have hit an all-time low.

As this report highlights, ministers need to take urgent action to restore victims’ faith in the justice system, which has been left teetering on the brink of collapse.

The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, on 15 March 2021.

The tragic death of Sarah Everard has instigated a national demand for action to tackle violence against women.

This is no time to be rushing through poorly thought-out measures to impose disproportionate controls on free expression and the right to protest.

Now is the time to unite the country and put in place on long overdue protections for women against unacceptable violence, including action against domestic homicides, rape and street harassment. And we must tackle the misogynistic attitudes that underpin the abuse women face.

Instead, the Conservatives have brought forward a Bill that is seeking to divide the country. It is a mess, which could lead to harsher penalties for damaging a statue than for attacking a woman.

Labour will be voting against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill on this basis. We are calling on the Government to drop its poorly thought-out proposals and instead work with Labour to legislate to tackle violence against women which is forcing so many across the country to live in fear. As well as to deliver the important areas that are long promised, like tougher sentences for attacks on frontline workers and increased sentences for terrorists.

The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, on 14 March 2021.

In the 20 schedules, 176 clauses and 296 pages of the Conservatives’ Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, “women” are not mentioned even once.

This is a missed opportunity to tackle violence against women and girls that has become endemic in the UK.

Under the Conservatives, rape convictions have fallen to an all-time low, delays in the Crown Courts are at an all-time high, and justice is not being served for thousands of women and girls.

After a decade of inaction, the Government must now work with Labour to legislate to tackle violence against women.

The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Justice Secretary, on 18 February 2021.

The collapse in cases dealt with by the criminal justice system in the past year is a result of the government’s slow and incompetent response to the pandemic.

The Government has failed to listen to Labour’s calls for a rapid extension in Nightingale Courts, reduced war time juries while pandemic restrictions are in place, and the immediate roll-out of testing in courts that would have allowed more justice to be done.

A decade of failed Conservative ideology has wrecked the justice system, leaving it vulnerable even before the pandemic began. We now need to rebuild the justice system so that the UK can become the fairest country in the world.

The speech made by David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, in the House of Commons on 20 January 2021.

We all know the numbers. The backlog of criminal cases in the Crown court has grown to more than 54,000. Including the magistrates courts, it has reached more than 457,000 cases. Serious criminal cases are being delayed by up to four years. Convictions are at by far their lowest this decade. Estimates show that the current scale of increase in the backlog would take 10 years to clear at pre-pandemic rates.

Numbers do not tell the whole story. Behind criminal cases, there are victims: victims of rape, robbery, domestic abuse, and violent assault. Each of those victims is being denied the speedy justice that our society owes them. It has been repeated many times, but it is true: justice delayed is justice denied. This is not just the case because of the pain that delays cause victims and the wrongly accused—it is because delays to justice can affect the verdict.

On Tuesday, four criminal justice watchdogs for England and Wales warned of “grave concerns” about the impact of court backlogs. Victims and witnesses may avoid the justice system entirely because of the delays. Witnesses may be unable to recall events properly many years after the event. As a responsible Opposition, we accept that the pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for the justice system. However, we do not accept the Government’s presentation of the backlog as a crisis that has resulted only from coronavirus. Before the pandemic, the Crown court backlog stood at 39,000 cases.

That figure was the result of sustained attacks on the justice system by successive Conservative Governments: an entire decade of court closures, cuts and reduced sitting days. Blackfriars Crown court was sold off by the Government in December 2019. It is now sitting empty, but it is being rented out as a film set by the developer for a new series of “Top Boy”. The Minister said “recovery”, but meanwhile the Government are paying through the nose for Nightingale courts a stone’s throw away.

Six hundred court staff, judges, lawyers and jurors have tested positive for covid-19 in the past seven weeks. A pilot scheme of lateral flow tests has now been authorised at only two courts in London and Manchester. A pilot scheme is not good enough, and neither is the plexiglass. Why have lateral flow tests not been implemented across the court system? The Minister knows that that is a serious problem and that we are a long way from recovery. Can he tell the House why the pitiful 19 Nightingale courts that he has managed to deliver fall so short of the 200 that Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service said were needed? Can he tell the House why lateral flow tests are not being trialled across the whole country? After 11 years of incompetence and cuts, will he admit that his Government failed to fix the roof while the sun was shining?

The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Justice Secretary, on 10 December 2020.

This is an insult to prison officers, who have gone into work tirelessly throughout this pandemic in order to keep the country safe. It is a disgrace that the government is overlooking key workers while handing out multi-million pound dodgy contracts to enrich their cronies.

The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, on 7 December 2020.

It is bonkers that the Government is prioritising launching an attack on human rights in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike the Conservatives, Labour is proud of this country’s leading role in developing human rights following the second world war.

There is no need for a review into the rights and freedoms that underpin our democracy and all of us enjoy.

The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, on 6 October 2020.

G4S’s past performance illustrates the failings of privatisation in the justice system. Its well-publicised failure to manage HMP Birmingham led to reports of violence, unsanitary conditions, drink, drugs, and the bullying of staff.

Serious questions must be asked about why the government has handed the contract for the new prison in Wellingborough to G4S.

To deliver justice and keep the country safe, prisons must be well-run, disciplined environments that punish offenders while enabling them to rehabilitate.