Prisons and Courts Bill

Debate between Lord Garnier and Elizabeth Truss

2nd reading: House of Commons
Monday 20th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

I will certainly look at that. I know my right hon. Friend has a long record of standing up for people with autism and making sure they have proper support.

[Sir Edward Garnier (Harborough) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend give way?

[Elizabeth Truss]

I want to finish this point, because I must move on to the courts section of the Bill, but I will give way.

[Sir Edward Garnier]

My right hon. Friend is very kind. The Bill says:

“The report must set out the extent to which prisons are meeting the purpose mentioned in section A1.”

What happens if a prison, or prisons generally, do not meet such a purpose? What will the Secretary of State do about it, what can she do about it, and what will happen if she does not do anything about it because prisoners are let out?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My right hon. and learned Friend, who served as the shadow prisons Minister, makes a very important point.

As well as creating a framework for the Minister, the Bill will set up a new Executive agency, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, from 1 April, to focus on the operational management of prisons and probation. We will have new standards, and performance measures will appear in performance tables so that the public can see, transparently and accountably, what is going on in prisons. At the moment, we do not know the employment rate for those coming out of a prison, how good a prison is at improving the English and maths of the people inside it, or how effective it is at getting them off drugs. Those measures will all be published, which will lead to much greater scrutiny and accountability for the public.

In addition, I am strengthening the powers of the prisons inspectorate. The inspectorate—the chief inspector, in particular—will be able to trigger an urgent response from the Secretary of State in the most serious cases. That means that if a prison is failing to meet the standards, the Secretary of State will have to respond within a specific timetable with an action plan to improve the prison. At the moment, that is not the case.