Prisoner Early Release

Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe Excerpts

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

The noble and learned Lord’s figures are correct. What I also believe is that most women should not be in prison. I believe most women are victims. When you know that over 60% of women in prison have brain damage as a result of being beaten up, you have to ask yourself the question, “Where is the right place for them?” What we need is a very robust and well-invested Probation Service. We need to make sure they have a house to live in when they are released and that they get the support both in prison and out, so that the likelihood of reoffending can be reduced. With the Women’s Justice Board that we set up last year, we have done a great amount of work on a women’s diversion fund. We already had one women’s intensive supervision court, and we have announced another four, so this is part of the process of getting to a point where we can close a women’s prison.

[Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Lab)]

Does the noble Lord agree that tagging has an important part to play in this—the investment in new technology should cover that—and are the Government going beyond that to explore implanted chips?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend, who probably reads Inside Time newspaper, because it had a headline about implanting chips. That was suggested by a potential supplier when we had a sort of a “Dragons’ Den” day, and it was not something we accepted at all. At the moment, 29,000 offenders are on an electronic tag, and that will be going up to 40,000 as a result of the changes we are carrying out. The technology is robust and it works, but we are also making sure that we use that technology better by using data better. That means working with the police, for example, so we can link crimes to where people are going about with their tag. We are also very interested in something called proximity tags, which means, for example, that a victim of stalking or domestic violence will know at any time where their perpetrator is so they can have the freedom to move wherever they want, not their perpetrator.