Public Office (Accountability) Bill

Baroness May of Maidenhead Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 1st September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness May of Maidenhead (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister reminded us that, sadly, there have over the years been all too many examples of the abuse of state power, when those in public service have decided to act in a way that serves their institution, or indeed themselves, rather than the public whom they are there to serve. But, despite all those many examples, we must never forget, as other speakers have already referred to, that the origin of this legislation lies on the pitch at Hillsborough on 15 April 1989. We owe it to the 97 who died, and their families who have campaigned for so many decades, to make sure that we get this Bill right and that it will work.

There has been a focus in some of the commentary on the issues of inquiries and investigations. But, of course, the lies, the manipulation of the facts and the misinformation at Hillsborough did not start at the inquest or at the independent panel; they started on and off the pitch on the day, 15 April 1989. That is why the wider issue of the duty of candour is so important, as is the aspect of the new legislation that the Government are introducing on misconduct in public office. Getting that right really matters for all those who have been affected by these abuses of state power over the years.

There are two particular aspects of the Bill that I will focus on. The first is the protected information that has been mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Beamish, and the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, who both have significant experience in this area. I recognise that this is a conundrum. There is a need to ensure that people can get to the truth while at the same time protecting our national security interests, and there has been much debate about this. I recognise from the noble Lord, Lord Beamish, that the ISC’s view is that this section of the Bill is adequate and appropriate. I am very grateful to the Minister and his officials for meeting me and my noble friend Lady Sanderson of Welton last week, when we were able to discuss some of these issues. But I fear that this section of the Bill—Clause 6—is rather cumbersome, and the more cumbersome a piece of legislation is, the more opportunity there will be for mistakes to be made and for unintended consequences, and the more resources will be required.

I do not know whether the Government have made any attempt to consider what the resource implications for the relevant public authorities of this aspect of the Bill could be. It is important that we ensure not just that we get to the truth and that people who are affected by abuses of the state are able to get to that truth but that intelligence and information that is necessary to keep us all safe can circulate to the relevant public authorities, our security services and others who deal with national security issues.

The noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, referred to special advocates. I think they have worked extremely well, and are a very good example of a way in which these two issues of national security and getting to the truth can be met, so we can ensure that we meet those two objectives. I look forward to further debate on this and to probing aspects such as, in Clause 6(8), what happens if an application is made and rejected. The Bill is silent on this, but the Minister may wish at some stage to respond on that point.

There is one aspect of the Bill which I am very sad about. It is that the Independent Public Advocate is not referred to in this Bill. The noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has already referred to the IPA. In an ideal situation, there will be circumstances where it will not be necessary to move to a public inquiry; if the Independent Public Advocate can work with the families who are affected by a mistake by the state, they can get to the truth at an early stage and there will be no need to move to an inquiry.

One of the complaints that I heard long and hard from the Hillsborough families at a very early stage in my time as Home Secretary was that there was nobody there for them: nobody on their side. The Independent Public Advocate is the person who will be on their side; who will be their voice; who will be campaigning for them; who will be working to knock down the barriers of bureaucracy that the state puts in place to try to stop the truth coming out. If we are going to look at this holistically, we need to ensure that the Independent Public Advocate is referenced in the Bill. Indeed, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has said, the resources available to the Independent Public Advocate, whether they are part-time or full-time, is another issue that needs to be addressed. The IPA is part of this picture and should be in the Bill because, together, the Bill and the IPA could mean that, in the future, no one affected by abuses and mistakes of the state should wait decades for the truth, no one will feel that they are on their own in fighting for the truth, and, above all, the state will be on the side of the public whom it serves.

Sentencing Bill

Baroness May of Maidenhead Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 6th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Keen of Elie (Con)]

My Lords, this amendment concerns an exemption to the presumption of suspended sentences for those convicted of sexual offences and domestic abuse. We listened carefully to the points raised by noble Lords in Committee. It was suggested then that our amendments were overly expansive, risked undermining the central objective of the Bill—to free up spaces in prison—and that we might constrain judicial discretion.

We have listened to, and taken into account, those concerns. The amendment before your Lordships today is far more tightly drawn. It does not seek to carve out a long list of offences, even though that might be our preferred position; nor does it attempt to undermine Clause 1’s central objective. Instead, it is narrowly focused on two categories of offending, where the case for custody, even for shorter sentences, is at its strongest: sexual offending and domestic abuse.

This amendment would preserve the presumption in favour of suspended sentences in the vast majority of cases, with exemptions only for sexual offences and domestic abuse. That seems proportionate and indeed, I would venture, necessary. Much of the debate in Committee rested on the assertion that short custodial sentences are ineffective or even counterproductive when judged solely by reoffending rates. Even if one accepts that the data paints a mixed picture, it is a mistake to treat sentencing policy as though it serves only one function. Prison is not simply about reoffending statistics; it serves other essential purposes: deterrence, public protection, the expression of society’s condemnation of serious wrongdoing, the maintenance of public confidence in the justice system and, crucially in cases such as these, the protection and reassurance of victims.

For victims of sexual assault or domestic abuse, the distinction between a custodial sentence and a suspended one is not an abstract policy question. It is the difference between knowing that their abuser has been removed from the community and knowing that they remain at liberty. This point is reinforced by the Government’s recent recognition of the scale of the problem. Violence against women and girls has been described as a national emergency, and a strategy announced to halve such violence within a decade, including the creation of specialist rape and sexual offence investigation teams in every police force by 2029. These measures, this Government note, will provide officers with the right training to understand the mindset of both abusers and victims, and ensure consistent investigation of sexual offences across the country.

Much has been made of the evidence on reoffending, but even the Government’s own publications urge caution on these. Official statistics emphasise that comparisons between custodial and non-custodial sentences do not control for differences in offender characteristics. Those receiving short custodial sentences, as I noted earlier, typically have far longer and more serious criminal histories than those given community or suspended sentences. The reality is not a simple dichotomy between bad short custodial sentences and good suspended sentences. Outcomes depend heavily on the risk posed by the offender and the need for immediate public protection. In cases of sexual offences and domestic abuse, those considerations weigh heavily in favour of custody. Nor should we overlook the deterrent effect of custody. While difficult to measure with precision, deterrence remains a central principle of sentencing. Removing custody from the toolkit for these offences was sending the wrong signal to offenders, and indeed to victims and the general public.

In Committee, it was also argued that carving out exceptions undermines judicial discretion. With respect, that argument sits uneasily with the structure of this Bill. The Bill already imposes a statutory presumption in favour of suspended sentences. This amendment simply ensures that, in the most serious and sensitive cases, Parliament does not compel courts to start from what I suggest is the wrong place. We believe this amendment is modest and targeted. It reflects a simple proposition that, for sexual offenders and domestic abusers, short custodial sentences continue to have a vital role to play. If the Minister cannot provide the appropriate assurances for this limited exception, then I will seek leave to divide the House.

[Baroness May of Maidenhead (Con)]

My Lords, I support the amendment in the name of my noble and learned friend Lord Keen, and I wish to echo two points. The first is that it is so important to victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse that they do not fear that their abuser, the perpetrator of those crimes, is somehow automatically going to be back in their community. The reassurance that they would get from knowing that the custodial sentence is available is important to those victims.

The second point is, as my noble and learned friend has raised, the issue of the Government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls and the strategy for violence against women and girls that is being brought forward. May I gently suggest to the Minister that, if the Government are serious about that, then they should accept this amendment? If they do not accept it, then that suggests that they are not as serious about their intentions on violence against women and girls as they are claiming.

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I too will be brief because I have agreed with everything that has been said so far. It is important to acknowledge that a strategy and policy on violence against women and girls can only mean something if in practice it results in taking that issue seriously. I would expect everybody across the House to agree that this exception is proportionate and correct, but if this amendment is not accepted, then I am afraid it makes me query whether a policy on violence against women and girls is anything other than a piece of paper that does not mean very much and certainly it will be viewed by women and girls with some scepticism.

I also want to draw attention to the fact that sexual offences and domestic abuse are escalating issues. Somebody might do something considered to be quite minor as a sexual offence which therefore may not require the full weight of a custodial sentence, but we know that these particular offences get worse. Ask anybody who has been a victim of them and you will find out that the perpetrators, once found guilty, have built up to what they have done. So we have to have custody as a mechanism for dealing with even the less serious examples of sexual offences and domestic abuse.

I also remind the House that David Lammy, the Secretary of State for Justice, has talked about the importance of taking the issue of pursuing alleged perpetrators of rape and sexual assault so seriously that he is even prepared to sacrifice jury trials. I completely disagree, by the way, with the use of the issue of sexual assault to undermine jury trials—there are empty courts as we speak where people could be being tried, and I do not think this would resolve it—but it does indicate that the Government are prepared to say that they will make exceptions when it comes to such cases where women and girls are victims of heinous crimes. Therefore, I appeal to the Minister to accept this amendment as being perfectly sensible. It will get cheers from around the country, because it is right that we take this particular form of crime very seriously and act on it rather than just using the words and the rhetoric.

Sentencing Bill

Baroness May of Maidenhead Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 6th January 2026 Lords Chamber

We would welcome a discussion about how to use that knowledge and expertise to help with the re-engineering of the system that will be brought in to replace OASys, and the sooner the better. In summary, the commissioner is keen to work with the Minister, his team and officials, and the Probation Service to try to upskill and re-engineer the way in which perpetrators are assessed for risk before they are potentially released, and she is keen to do this as quickly as possible.

[Baroness May of Maidenhead (Con)]

My Lords, I support Amendments 82, 83 and 86, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Russell of Liverpool. I start, if I may, with a point that I made earlier in the debate on Amendment 25. The Government have a strategy on violence against women and girls. They have a clear commitment to reduce violence against women and girls. It seems to me, therefore, that the Government should be looking to make sure that they in no way inadvertently increase the risk of violence against women and girls. This aspect of the Bill—the fact that a perpetrator who has been released, breached their licence by making contact with the victim and is then recalled, could then be automatically released after 56 days—is such a potential loophole, because that individual is highly likely in those circumstances to go back to the victim and potentially further abuse them.

The amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Russell, are time-limited. It is recognised that the Government are increasing the capacity of the system to make risk assessments of individuals, but those programmes are not entirely in place at the moment. There is the potential for the Government, by accepting these amendments, to close that loophole and further enhance the ability to prevent violence against women and girls.

I heard what the noble Lord, Lord Russell, said about his conversations with the Minister and his expectation, or concern, that perhaps he might not immediately leap to his feet and accept these amendments. I want to pick up one of the points about working with those in the field who are experts on these issues. It is only because of the Domestic Abuse Act that we have a single definition of domestic abuse that is now used across the whole of government. It is a comprehensive definition of domestic abuse, because domestic abuse comes in many different forms. Sadly, many of those in the criminal justice system do not yet fully understand all forms of domestic abuse. It is one of the issues that I know the Government will still have to deal with in making sure that the police, prosecutors, judges and probation officers all understand the panoply of issues that constitute domestic abuse.

It is important that, if the Government are not willing to close this loophole by accepting these amendments, they work with experts in the field to make sure that those who are being trained to risk-assess perpetrators are able to do so in the full knowledge and understanding of what constitutes domestic abuse.

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I support the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Russell of Liverpool. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady May, on her words and her fantastic editorship of the “Today” programme on New Year’s Day, where she highlighted the problems of domestic abuse.

This amendment would make a significant difference to the safety of victims. We are making progress in seeing victims coming forward and, when they do, protecting them. Victims live with the fear that their perpetrator will contact them at any time. The Probation Service is doing an excellent job, most of the time, but change and training take time, especially to embed themselves, and, as has been witnessed, without proper training, devastating consequences can occur.

My noble and learned friend Lord Garnier stated that it is all about risk and how to assess it. This amendment is easy to incorporate, is easy to carry out and could put a significant safety valve in the system while the necessary training is put in place. I ask the Minister to try to see in his mind that this would be a good thing to do. When I was sitting on that Bench, every now and again an amendment to a Bill would come forward and I would think, “This really could work”, but I was always being put off, either by the Bill team or by the department. Occasionally, I took it into my own head and did something off my own bat. I was then told, when I left the Chamber, “You’re making government policy. That’s not what you’re meant to do”. But I did not get the sack, so it was worth doing.