King’s Speech

Lord Burnett of Maldon Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Burnett of Maldon (CB)]

My Lords, I add my welcome to the noble Lords now occupying the Government Front Bench, and in particular congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Timpson, on his maiden speech. We last met, as he may remember, when he was chairman of the Prison Reform Trust. We discussed much, including the rise in the prison population—then thousands fewer than today—and the quality of political debate on sentencing. As Lord Chief Justice, I characterised it publicly as amounting to little more than the Government saying, “Lock everyone up” and the Opposition agreeing and saying, “And for longer, please”—a caricature, I know, but not far from the reality, which was driven by raw politics. The evidence of the debate today suggests that that may now be changing.

Yet we have a prison population that is twice what it was when the noble Lord, Lord Howard, was Home Secretary. Since the autumn of 2022, we have been living with the daily possibility that the system will grind to a halt in various parts of the country for want of somewhere to take prisoners from our courts.

I hope that the noble Lord’s appointment represents a signal of intent from the Government to look seriously at sentencing in the context of the statutory purposes that we all understand: punishment, the reduction of crime, the rehabilitation of offenders, the protection of the public and the making of reparation by the offender. Punishment is not the only purpose.

The subject of the impact, both immediate and wider, of different sentences is the subject of academic research the world over. The United Kingdom, and England and Wales in particular, is out of step with almost all advanced democracies when it comes to the use of prison. We lock up more and we lock them up for longer. That would be a good thing only if it were supported by evidence of an overall benefit. But it is not. I welcome the review to which the Minister referred much earlier this afternoon, and his comments following the Statement on prison capacity.

One part of the prison population that has grown substantially is the number on remand awaiting trial. Other noble Lords have referred to that already. That is the result of the rise in the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court. There are many causes, but among them are Covid, the increase in more complex cases coming into the system, and the action by the Bar in 2023. Of two things we can be sure. The outstanding caseload is at least 50% higher than in March 2020 and, even more worryingly, the proportion of cases taking more than a year after entering the courts has grown from below 10% in pre-Covid days to more than 25% now. In the years before 2019, the work entering the criminal courts was in steady decline. That is no longer the case.

The time has come for radical thinking about how to try criminal cases in our courts. The balance between those dealt with in the magistrates’ court and the Crown Court needs to change. That is despite the Crown Court sitting more days now than it has done for almost 20 years. Restoring the sentencing powers of magistrates, reversed last year, would be a start, and there is much scope for tinkering to retain more in the magistrates’ courts; but more should be done. The Government should reconsider proposals made in the 2001 review by Sir Robin Auld to try a range of less serious cases now dealt with by judge and jury with a judge and two magistrates. Such cases would take less time; the backlog would fall. Radical change requires political courage but without it, I fear that unacceptable delay will become endemic.