Criminal Justice Reform

Debate between Lord Lemos and Lord Faulks

Tuesday 8th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the noble and learned Lord. I am interested. I hope I sound interested. I have been interested in all this for a very long time. In fact, I am starting to bore even myself, not just the noble and learned Lord. But I take what he said seriously. As I say, in general I am not one for blaming the previous Government. I absolutely recognise that this has been going on for a long time now and we have not managed to expand the prison estate. There have been successive announcements, but I think we are making some progress in that regard. We are not going to get down to the sorts of numbers that the noble and learned Lord is talking about—he knows that—but we have to make those commitments on prison building.

On IPPs, I will absolutely look at the amendment that the noble and learned Lord proposed. Obviously, at this stage, we are working our way through exactly how we do this, and I am sure I will be back before your Lordships at the Dispatch Box before long to set that out.

There is one other thing, which I should have mentioned when the noble Lord, Lord Clarke, was speaking. My noble friend Lord Blunkett, who cannot be in his place today, said to me that these sentences had not worked in the way they intended, which is a kind of confirmation of what the noble Lord, Lord Clarke, said.

[Lord Faulks (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, the Minister referred to the removal of foreign national offenders and how that was to be a priority. I am sure that the House welcomes that, but I did not hear an answer to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson, about the changes in the application of the relevant provisions in the European Convention on Human Rights, which would potentially make it much easier to remove foreign national offenders. Can he tell us when we can expect these changes? Also in terms of changes, one of the problems that we heard a great deal about from his predecessor was the backlog of cases, which of course meant that people were in prison for longer than necessary, often awaiting trial. Can he tell the House whether the proposed changes to trial by jury are still part of the Government’s plans or not?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

Foreign national offenders have the right to appeal their removal, but this Government are already tightening how the right to family life in the ECHR is applied to our Immigration Rules so that it is no longer abused, as part of our immigration White Paper. The Government’s view is that we do not have to withdraw from the ECHR to deliver meaningful change. On the question of trial by jury, we will be discussing the Courts and Tribunals Bill before long, I am sure.