Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Gullis Excerpts

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Alexander Stafford (Rother Valley) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to tackle pet theft.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to tackle pet theft.

[Jane Stevenson (Wolverhampton North East) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to tackle pet theft.

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Buckland]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s commitment to this campaign. I am pleased to hear about his energetic efforts in this sphere and I wish him well. Decisions on priorities are, of course, a matter for individual forces, but I am sure he will want to work with his local force to achieve the laudable aims that his campaign represents.

[Jonathan Gullis]

Pet theft is a shameless and disgusting act that harms families across our country. Scumbag Malachy Doherty of Tunstall was recently sentenced to 27 weeks in prison for stealing Labradors Denzel and Welly. Twenty-seven weeks does not seem long enough to me, so does my right hon. and learned Friend agree with the people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke that, as part of the pet theft taskforce, firmer punishments and vets checking microchips at the first visit will be ways to help prevent the heartache felt by many victims’ families?

[Robert Buckland]

My hon. Friend always speaks with vigour on behalf of his constituents, and I wholeheartedly agree with his revulsion at this appalling type of crime. We share his deep concern, which is why the sort of ideas and proposals he outlined are very much at the forefront of Government thinking.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Chalk)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising that matter. It is an extraordinary fact that 10 years ago stalking was not even an offence, but it was made an offence in 2012. I, together with my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham), had a campaign to double the maximum sentence so there is a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment. But it is not enough to have the punishment; we have to make sure that these matters get before the courts as well, and that is why I am grateful to the police and the courts for prioritising them. Those who stalk should know that they will be punished properly.

[Jonathan Gullis (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Con)]

I once again place on the record my thanks to the Lord Chancellor for backing my private Member’s Bill which called for specific protection and punishment for those who desecrate memorials and graves to our glorious dead. The people of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke also want to know whether this change in the law will protect the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in Parliament Square, which may not be a war memorial but is an important reminder to the public of our greatest Briton.

[Robert Buckland]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising an issue of genuine and widespread public concern. He will note that the phraseology in the Bill talks about memorials, which of course would include memorials such as the one to Sir Winston Churchill. The important point is that we can now move away from the court determining on the mere cost of repair to criminal damage to look at the overall cultural and emotional value of statues like that one, and indeed, ordinary “unvisited tombs”, to quote George Eliot, of people who have a great value to the local community and to their loved ones.