Budget Resolutions

Catherine Atkinson Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)]

The Budget was great news for Derby—particularly the £2.5 billion investment with Rolls-Royce to develop the next generation of aircraft engine and keep us at the forefront of this country’s reindustrialisation—but I rise to speak about justice. Whether it is growth in every postcode, high streets being brought back to life or getting everyone in and off the streets for Christmas, none can be achieved without investment in and reform of our justice system.

The Prime Minister’s first instruction on entering Downing Street was to end rough sleeping, an objective that is inspiring, ambitious and right. The near doubling of the £442 million to £874 million for those measures in the Budget showed intent, but here is where our justice system comes in: every month, 1,000 people go straight from prison to homelessness, with many rough sleeping. That figure has gone up and outpaced the increase in the number leaving prison. Being homeless doubles the risk of reoffending and makes the goal of ending rough sleeping unobtainable. That is why we need a duty for rehabilitation services to ensure that, on leaving prison, people do not go on to the streets and into worklessness.

[Jim Shannon]

I commend the hon. Lady for the point she is making and the Government for what they are doing on homelessness in particular. Does she agree that there should be priority for veterans in the homelessness scheme? They come out of prison, get lost in the system and nobody catches them where they are. I see that happening regularly in my constituency. Should they be given priority to address that?

[Catherine Atkinson]

I thank the hon. Member for his contribution. I acknowledge that there are many categories of people who we want to ensure have real priority. The Government already have the ambition to halve the number of prisoners who are released into homelessness, but, if we are to end rough sleeping and break cycles of offending, that ambition is not ambitious enough.

Just as it is morally offensive to us when we see someone sleeping rough in the doorway of a really high-end hotel, it should also offend us when we see the global elite and blue chip companies coming to Britain for our world-class justice while our own citizens are often left outside that justice system, getting rough justice. We should be rightly proud—and the Treasury mindful—of the huge contribution that international cases make to our country’s economy. In 2024 alone, the UK legal sector contributed £42.6 billion to the economy, and the UK is the largest legal services market in Europe and second only to the US globally, but we should be using some of that revenue to improve access to early legal advice and to legal aid, and to address the dire shortage in duty solicitors for our own people.

Lastly, there was positive news for our high streets, with the Budget taking many of our cafés, pubs and beauty salons completely out of business rates. The Home Secretary is putting police back on the frontline, and we have reversed the effective decriminalisation of shoplifting under the previous Government, but the justice system needs to work much faster for all of us, including on our high streets and in our town and city centres, where people need to feel safe if they are to want to be there and spend money.

But as well as fast, justice needs to be fair. It is not right for people on the minimum wage to face custodial sentences—potentially going up to two years’ custody—and not qualify for legal aid, leaving them unrepresented in court.

[James Naish (Rushcliffe) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Catherine Atkinson]

I am conscious of the number of people who want to speak in this debate, so I will continue.

It is not said often enough that this country’s dogged belief in fair rules for everyone is also a secret ingredient to business success—if your assets are protected, your contracts are enforced and your disputes are decided, that is one less risk—but there must be access to justice for our smaller businesses, as well as the larger multinationals.

There is more to do in our justice system. More is needed. I acknowledge that in the last spending review, the Budget for justice was increased by an average of 2.4%, but in the 2010s, justice spending was cut by 33% in real terms. Spending today is only on a par with what it was 24 years ago, in 2002, and it is lower per person than it was then. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that the Ministry of Justice would need an additional £3.6 billion just to equal its spending per person before austerity. Many of the challenges facing the justice system today have their roots in that period of austerity. I will be knocking on the Treasury Ministers’ door as hard as my children were knocking on our neighbours’ doors last week at Halloween. This is not trick or treat; it is common sense. It is essential that we act now to avoid a jump-scare later on.