Prisons

Lord Ramsbotham Excerpts

Thursday 20th October 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Ramsbotham]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the call by the Prison Governors Association for an independent public inquiry into the state of prisons in England and Wales.

[The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Keen of Elie) (Con)]

My Lords, safe and secure prisons are a fundamental part of our reform ambitions. The scale of the challenge we face is clear from the recent incident at Pentonville. However, we are determined to modernise the prison estate and empower governors so that we can tackle issues such as drugs and violence. That is key to making prisons safe. We will set out plans for prison safety and reform in a White Paper in the coming weeks.

[Lord Ramsbotham (CB)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Tuesday’s horrendous murder in Pentonville drew yet more attention to the fact that our prisons are in crisis. I regard the call for a public inquiry into their state by the very reputable Prison Governors Association as a vote of no confidence in the years of purely in-house tinkering with the system by successive Ministers and officials. The then Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker—now the noble Lord, Lord Baker of Dorking—called in my now noble and learned friend Lord Woolf and the then managing director of British Aerospace to conduct inquiries after the prison riots in 1990. I ask the Minister to advise the Secretary of State for Justice to listen carefully to those most affected by the current crisis and to acknowledge that an inquiry may well find that the in-house approach has been a prime contributor to, if not a main cause of, the current crisis.

[Lord Keen of Elie]

It is not thought that a public inquiry is the way forward when we are about to publish a White Paper on prison safety and reform, in which we will address these issues. Of course, the Prison Governors Association has expressed concerns. Like the Secretary of State, it wants safe prisons as the foundation for prison reform. It has welcomed the fact that initial funding has recently been made available, with the announcement of a £14 million pilot scheme for new public sector prisons operating in 10 selected sites.

Immigration Bill

Lord Ramsbotham Excerpts

Monday 1st February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ramsbotham (CB)]

My Lords, before speaking to the amendments in my name and those of the noble Baronesses, Lady Hamwee and Lady Lister of Burtersett, perhaps I might put a more general question to the Minister, to which I do not expect a definitive answer—it may be above his pay grade to give one.

An enormous number of government amendments were tabled just before Report in the other place, none of which was discussed in Committee. Since the Bill has been before this House, the Government have tabled more than 150 amendments; they have received a 350-page report from Stephen Shaw, which they commissioned on the welfare of vulnerable persons in immigration detention, to which they have published a one-and-a-half-page response; they have received a report commissioned by SERCO on detention arrangements in the immigration removal centre at Yarl’s Wood; they have also received an internal report on immigration detention, announced by the Minister at Second Reading, about which no details have been disclosed or released.

This unprecedented volume of associated activity after a Bill has been formally introduced in the other place suggests that the Government do not know exactly what they want to achieve, and that the Bill as currently constructed is not fit for purpose. I speak from the point of view of someone who fervently hopes that the Bill, as ultimately approved, will improve the way in which immigration and asylum issues are conducted in this country, and I bear in mind the increasing strain under which the system is going to come as climate change pressures are added to those it is currently under. Given that, I put it to the Minister that further processing of something to which the Government have already made more than 200 amendments—which must be something of a record—seems a pretty pointless exercise until they have worked out exactly what they intend.

My question to the Minister is therefore in the form of a proposal; namely, that on common-sense grounds alone further processing should be suspended and the Bill temporarily withdrawn, as happened to the Health and Social Care Act 2012, until it has been adjusted to include the Government’s many changes of mind and the implications of any recommendations they accept from the reports they have commissioned. In addition, such a pause would enable them to think again about some of the unnecessary bureaucratic complexity that the Bill, as currently constructed, will add to the demands on already overstretched officials on the front line, when simplicity should be the name of the game.

In speaking to my amendments, I first acknowledge what the Minister said about detention being used only as a last resort. The Government’s short response to the Shaw report states:

“Where it is necessary for the purposes of removal”,

of those with no right to remain in this country,

“and taking into account any risk that an individual may abscond”,

the enforcement action that they take,

“will involve a period of detention (which of course can be avoided if the individual departs voluntarily)”.

As the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, said, immigration removal centres—the official title of places in which immigration detention is conducted—are presumably intended to be only short-term holding facilities. This explains their lack of suitable facilities for anyone held for more than a few days. However, the Government do not appear to have made up their mind about what rules govern detention in short-term holding facilities because, despite a promise made as long ago as 2002, these rules have yet to be published. True, draft versions appeared in 2006 and 2009 but nothing more. The situation appears to be that announced by the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach, in answer to a Question of mine in October 2013, namely that:

“The … Short-Term Holding Facility Rules have yet to be finalised and … there is at present no fixed date for when they will be made”.—[Official Report, 30/10/13; col. WA 261.]

Can the Minister update the House on the current position?

Commenting on the Shaw report the Detention Forum, a network of 30 organisations working in the immigration arena which was mentioned by my noble friend Lord Hylton, has said that the damning conclusions of the wide-ranging recommendations demonstrate that fundamental reform is needed. I would have thought that 350 pages and 64 recommendations deserved more than a mere one-and-a-half pages of government response, particularly when everyone outside the Home Office who knows anything about the way that immigration detention is currently conducted knows that something so obviously flawed is in urgent need of fundamental reform. Report after report by successive chief inspectors of prisons and immigration are nothing more than catalogues of failure which successive Ministers, and senior Home Office officials, have done nothing to correct over too many years. Seen against what those currently responsible must know to be urgently needed, the Government’s three proposals in their miserable response amount to nothing more than a sticking-plaster exercise. I hope that taken overall, my amendments and Amendment 216, moved by the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, will give those responsible for reform a comprehensive list of subjects that any review should encompass.

The Government’s first proposal, to adopt a wider definition of those at risk, is covered by Amendment 216ZC. I declare an interest in their second proposal, as a vice-president of the Centre for Mental Health, which has been commissioned to carry out a detailed assessment of the mental health needs of those held in immigration detention and report next month. Following receipt of this report, the Government then allege that the Home Office and the Department of Health will publish a joint mental health action plan in April. I simply do not believe that a fully comprehensive mental health treatment action plan can be produced in this ridiculously short time. To suggest that it is possible discloses a lack of understanding of what will be required—no doubt spurred on by wanting to give the impression that, after years of masterly inactivity and refusals to listen, urgent action is about to be taken. As Chief Inspector of Prisons I reported on the inadequacy of mental health arrangements in what were then called immigration detention centres in 1998 and, 17 years later, nothing has happened. Is it really likely that they are now to be transformed in a matter of weeks?

The Government’s third proposal is also beyond the capability of the Home Office to deliver, bearing in mind how long we have been waiting for short-term holding facility rules. They say that they will,

“implement a new approach to the case management of those detained, replacing the existing detention review process with a clear removal plan for all those in detention … combined with a more rigorous assessment of who enters detention through a new gate-keeping function”.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Hamwee]

I suspect that the noble Lord may be coming towards a halt, if not to the end of the issue. It occurs to me that I do not think that any of us asked about the Home Office’s internal review on this subject, which we heard about in previous debates.

[Lord Ramsbotham]

I think I asked.

[Baroness Hamwee]

Well, I do not think the question was answered. Has the Minister any news about that? I appreciate that we are taking a long time on this, but the size and substance of the issue justifies it.