Asked by: Colum Eastwood (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has had recent discussions with his counterpart in Northern Ireland on trends in the level of deaths from pregabalin consumption in the north west of Northern Ireland; and whether he plans to take steps to amend sentencing guidelines in the context of these trends.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The maximum penalty specified in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 for supply of a class A controlled drug is life imprisonment, and for class B or C it is 14 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. The government reclassified pregabalin as a Class C controlled drug in 2019 following an assessment of its harms by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Sentencing guidelines are developed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales (‘the Council’). The Council is an independent body which decides on its own priorities and work plan. Guidelines produced by the Council are not applicable to courts in Northern Ireland, as sentencing is a devolved matter.
The Council recently reviewed and revised its drug offences sentencing guidelines, which came into force on 1 April 2021. They set out that exposure of a drug user to the risk of serious harm over and above that expected by the user is an existing aggravating factor for the offence of supplying a controlled drug. An aggravating factor makes an offence more serious and is considered by the court when sentencing.
Justice Ministers have not discussed pregabalin-related deaths with the Northern Ireland Department for Justice.
Asked by: Colum Eastwood (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plan to take steps to strengthen sentencing guidance on dealing and supplying drugs which lead to the death of those who consume them.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The maximum penalty specified in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 for supply of a class A controlled drug is life imprisonment, and for class B or C it is 14 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. The government reclassified pregabalin as a Class C controlled drug in 2019 following an assessment of its harms by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Sentencing guidelines are developed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales (‘the Council’). The Council is an independent body which decides on its own priorities and work plan. Guidelines produced by the Council are not applicable to courts in Northern Ireland, as sentencing is a devolved matter.
The Council recently reviewed and revised its drug offences sentencing guidelines, which came into force on 1 April 2021. They set out that exposure of a drug user to the risk of serious harm over and above that expected by the user is an existing aggravating factor for the offence of supplying a controlled drug. An aggravating factor makes an offence more serious and is considered by the court when sentencing.
Justice Ministers have not discussed pregabalin-related deaths with the Northern Ireland Department for Justice.
Asked by: Colum Eastwood (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support his Department has given to victims of clerical abuse to access justice.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Rape and sexual abuse are devastating crimes that can have a life-long impact, and the Government is committed to ensuring the victims of these crimes have access to high-quality support services to help them cope and, as far as possible, recover. These services are available to all victims whether or not they report to the police.
In 2020/21, the Ministry of Justice awarded £12m to 91 rape support centres across England and Wales to provide independent, specialist support to female and male victims of sexual violence, an increase of £4m from 2019/20. This includes £1.8m of ringfenced funding for victims of recent and non-recent child sexual abuse.
The government has also recently doubled the financial support it provides to national organisations that support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse to £2.4m.
The new funding is in addition to the £4.79m provided to Police and Crime Commissioners by the Ministry of Justice to support victims of child sexual abuse (part of the £69m provided this year for them to commission victim support service based on local need).
We are committed to ensuring that victims can continue to access such support during the pandemic, and recently announced a £76m package of funding for victims, with £10 million ringfenced to provide support for victims of sexual violence specifically. This has helped fund technology to enable charities to offer services remotely.
The Government also recently announced that an additional £4m per annum until 2022 will be invested in recruiting more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) to help victims feel informed and supported at every stage of their recovery journey. ISVAs provide an important link between police, support services and criminal justice agencies.
We will continue to work with the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to expose what went wrong in the past and to learn the lessons for the future.