Violence Reduction, Policing and Criminal Justice

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

His Majesty’s Gracious Speech to both Houses of Parliament was most illuminating, in my view, and serves as an excellent statement of intent from His Majesty’s Government.

I remind the House that since 2010 there has been much progress in the area of policing and law and order. The rate of reoffending then stood at 32%, but I am proud to say that in the year 2020-21 it had fallen to 25%. Since 2010, violent crime is down by 52%, domestic burglary by 57%, and vehicle death by 39%. The measures put forward by the Government in this Gracious Speech will, I am sure, be welcomed by people across the country, particularly those who live in fear of crime and antisocial behaviour.

The Criminal Justice Bill contains some excellent proposals. We all saw the terrible Lucy Letby case play out in the courts, and indeed in the press, earlier this year. The Bill will mandate defendants’ attendance at sentencing hearings, ensuring that victims have the right to air their grievances with the defendant present and see justice done at first hand. In addition to giving greater satisfaction to victims through the trial and sentencing process, the Bill will better protect children and young people by increasing maximum penalties for those who have sold weapons to minors, and by strengthening laws tackling individuals in possession of blades with the intent to cause harm.

If we can take knives off our streets and at the same time increase the deterrence, I hope we can continue towards dramatically reducing knife crime and, in particular, the horror of children killing other children. That issue has been a priority for local police and crime commissioners, including my very good friend and colleague Commissioner Mark Shelford in Avon and Somerset.

However, even with all the progress we have made so far, it is still the case that in some of our communities, vulnerable and older residents are afraid to venture outside their homes, especially after dark, and some younger people may also feel intimidated by groups of other young people. The situation has got better since 2010, but there is much more to do and the Criminal Justice Bill is a massive part of the plan to improve our law and order and the safety of our communities.

At the launch of the police and crime commissioner election campaign last week in County Durham, with my colleague Councillor Robert Potts—the Conservative candidate and a former soldier and police officer—I outlined how the Bill empowers our policemen and women to enforce the law better and to stand up for the victims of crime. The Bill will give officers greater access to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency records and databases in order to identify criminals and bring them to justice. Officers will also be able to enter private premises without a warrant if stolen technology, tracked by GPS, is proven to be at the corresponding location.

The Sentencing Bill will mean that life means life for the most serious and sadistic of offenders who have taken the lives of others. In addition, it will ensure that the most serious sex offenders will serve the whole of their sentence and will not have the opportunity for parole. However, when other prisoners are released on parole, home detention curfews will be extended, and Ministers will have greater oversight of parole boards to ensure that they are accountable to the public. Those measures will ensure that we can keep our streets and communities safer and protect the most vulnerable in our society—that must be the priority for any Government and any police force—while not diminishing the opportunity for rehabilitation, so that people can become better educated when serving their sentences, emerging as better citizens in our society.

The protection and safety of children, the vulnerable and the innocent must be our first priority. Indeed, in the Gracious Speech the Government announced legislation to empower police forces and the criminal justice system to prevent new or complex crime such as digitally enabled crime and child sexual exploitation, including grooming. In addition, the Victims and Prisoners Bill will implement Jade’s law, automatically suspending legal parental responsibility for a parent who commits murder or voluntary manslaughter of their child’s other parent. To further protect women in particular, the Government will bar prisoners convicted of the most serious crimes from marrying or entering civil partnerships in prison in England and Wales.

To sum up, the measures in the King’s Speech encapsulate the values of the Conservative Government. Some on the Opposition Benches have paid lip service to law and order over the years, but we Conservatives have recruited 20,000 police officers and tackled reoffending, and we are deterring crime and making our communities safer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Tuesday 18th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Maclean]

It is lovely to have these exchanges across the Dispatch Boxes with the hon. Lady, and I am sure that we will have more of them, because it is in all our interests that we improve the criminal justice system and the response to rape. That is why, as she well knows, the work of the rape review is vital, and we have seen police referrals, Crown Prosecution Service charges and Crown court receipts increasing as a result of that vital work, driven by our law enforcement partners and the CPS. I draw her attention to two specific measures that we have introduced to assist: we have ended the criminal Bar strike, thanks to the efforts of the Lord Chancellor; and we have rolled out section 28 pre-recorded evidence to all Crown courts in the country to spare rape victims the trauma of live cross-questioning.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

3. What steps his Department is taking to help offenders find employment following their release from prison.

[Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)]

5. What steps his Department is taking to help offenders find employment following their release from prison.

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[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Brandon Lewis)]

Getting prisoners into employment helps not only to fill the 1.25 million vacancies that businesses have right now, but to drive down reoffending. To achieve that, we are building stronger links with employers and suppliers and are offering more offenders the chance to work in prison, on release on temporary licence, and on release from prison.

[Jack Lopresti]

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that through the apprenticeships programme that his Department is running, prison leavers will be given the opportunity to achieve qualifications that will help them into new jobs and careers and help them to turn their back on crime?

[Brandon Lewis]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We want to get more prisoners the skills and qualifications that they need to get into employment and have the chance to contribute to society, which cuts crime and grows the economy. I am delighted that the first apprentices have now started work. We are planning a roundtable to encourage a wide range of employers, particularly in the UK hospitality and construction industries, where there is a lot more that we can do.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Tom Hunt (Ipswich) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to reduce reoffending.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to reduce reoffending.

[Shaun Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to reduce reoffending.

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[Robert Buckland]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to talk about the potential impact and the shock that can be caused to members of the public if people who are known to be in custody are communicating and using social media, and prisoners who break the rules should face consequences. The internal adjudication system allows the removal of privileges, stoppage of earnings and confinement to cell, and more serious breaches can be referred to the independent adjudicator, but some crimes committed in prison are clearly so serious that governors will continue to refer those matters to the police.

[Jack Lopresti]

Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that prison education in itself is crucial to reducing reoffending?

[Robert Buckland]

My hon. Friend makes an important point, because the evidence is that the completion of any prison education reduces reoffending by 7.5%. We plan to strengthen rehabilitation further by creating a prisoner education service that will be focused on work-based training and skills. The Prison Service’s new future network is doing great work to build partnerships between prisons and employers to ensure that prisoners are job ready on release.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Robert Buckland]

What I will say is that we are working on a housing repossession pilot. We are investing £5 million in early intervention services. I take a great interest in the work of law centres, and I want to do more to help them.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

What plans does my right hon. and learned Friend’s Department have to help to facilitate careers for people who want to join the Ministry of Justice who have served in the military or the armed forces, so that it can help to communicate and facilitate their transition back into civilian life?

[Robert Buckland]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point about the role of the armed forces. They have a huge offer to make, and I will talk to him further about those points.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Tuesday 6th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

T2. Will my right hon. Friend commit herself to using all the powers at her disposal to protect British military personnel and veterans, who have served our country bravely and with great honour, from spurious and outrageous legal claims such as those pursued by, for instance, public interest law firms?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I am delighted to tell my hon. Friend that this summer the Legal Aid Agency pulled the plug on its contract with Public Interest Lawyers, who will no longer be ambulance-chasing our brave service personnel. Legal aid should support vulnerable people in our society, and should not be used to pursue spurious cases against the armed forces who do so much to serve our country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Tuesday 13th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con)]

12. What plans he has to increase public confidence in community sentences.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

14. What plans he has to increase public confidence in community sentences.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Jeremy Wright)]

The Government are determined to ensure that community sentences deliver punishment, rehabilitation and reparation. We are legislating to require courts to include a punitive element in every community order, as the public would expect, and to enable the electronic tracking of offenders.

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[Jeremy Wright]

I am disappointed not to receive an invitation to Tamworth. None the less, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is important that we move forward with the work being done in Staffordshire and elsewhere with neighbourhood justice panels. We want to see what work can be done by and in communities to ensure that low-level offences are dealt with appropriately. The broader point about restorative justice is also right. This is an important innovation, and we can get a great deal out of it—mostly for victims, although there are reoffending benefits as well.

[Jack Lopresti]

Can my hon. Friend assure me that community orders will continue to address the problems that have caused—or at least contributed to—offending behaviour in the first place, such as drug abuse, alcoholism and mental health problems?

[Jeremy Wright]

Yes, I can. We are saying that there should be an element of punishment in every community order, unless there are exceptional circumstances, but that does not prevent a sentencer from passing whatever other measures in the order they believe appropriate for the purposes of rehabilitation. My hon. Friend is right to identify some of those, but there are of course many more. This is all about reducing reoffending. That is partly about punishment, but it is also about ensuring that someone does not go right back to the same cycle of offending.

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[Chris Grayling]

Of course, it is the role of Britain and other democratic nations to encourage non-democratic countries around the world to adopt democratic principles, the rule of law and a proper fair, independent judiciary. But I have to say that I do not believe it was ever the intention of those who created the human rights framework to which we are currently subject that people who have an avowed intent to do damage to this country should be able to use human rights laws to prevent their deportation back to their country of origin.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

T7. Does the Secretary of State believe that the election of police and crime commissioners on Thursday will help restore public confidence in the way that offences are dealt with in local communities?

[Damian Green]

I agree with my hon. Friend, not least because although they are police and crime commissioners, people may have focused too much on the policing aspect. The crime reduction aspect is at the heart of what these new elected bodies will do, and crime prevention and some of the things that we have been discussing earlier this morning, such as restorative justice, will play a very important part in each locality in improving the criminal justice system and improving public confidence in the criminal justice system. The PCCs will play a significant part in that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jack Lopresti Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

Not much has changed. We are exploring proposals of all kinds. We are about to produce a Green Paper in December, and as is always the case—there is nothing new in this—people try to guess what might be in it. Some people make informed guesses, some make uninformed guesses and some get it right. The hon. Gentleman will have to wait until December to see our final judgments about how best to reform a sentencing system which is over-complicated, difficult for the judges to understand and ripe for reform, and which is completely failing to protect the public by getting reoffending rates down to a sensible level.

[Jack Lopresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Con)]

Recently, a group of Travellers was served with an eviction order from the site next to St Peter’s, a new school in my constituency of Filton and Bradley Stoke, only for another group of Travellers to move in as soon as the site was vacated. Will the Minister look at the law in question to see whether it can be changed so that it is site-specific, rather than applying to individuals in certain cases?

[Mr Blunt]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the question. We are already looking at the law on squatting; this, in a sense, is an associated issue. I shall be happy to examine it as well.