Oral Answers to Questions

Lucy Allan Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2015 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Lucy Allan (Telford) (Con)]

1. What his plans are for the future of rehabilitation services for prisoners; and if he will make a statement.

[Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (Con)]

2. What his plans are for the future of rehabilitation services for prisoners; and if he will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Michael Gove)]

May I begin by praising the work of my predecessor to improve the rehabilitation of offenders? Thanks to his reforming zeal, we have broadened the range of people providing and benefiting from rehabilitation, but there is still much more to do.

[Lucy Allan]

I thank the Secretary of State for his reply and for the great work to support the rehabilitation of offenders to give them a second chance. Will he assure me that that rehabilitation will never be appropriate in cases such as the brutal murder of Telford teenager Georgia Williams?

[Michael Gove]

Absolutely. May I emphasise that, with heinous crimes such as the appalling murder of Georgia Williams, judges have the freedom to impose whole-life orders? One was imposed on the killer in that terrible case.