Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alex Chalk and Philip Hollobone

Tuesday 9th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Alex Chalk]

We have a human rights framework that we consider to be important. We are mindful of the points that the hon. Gentleman raises. We are satisfied that we can deliver on the priorities of the British people. It is a perfectly reasonable priority to want to ensure that we have warm hearts but an open front door, and we are satisfied that we can do so within our international legal obligations.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

It was revealed yesterday that, despite the best efforts of the Home Office, an Albanian-speaking migrant who has spent half his life in Serbia, and who has been jailed in this country for 18 months for cannabis farming after having entered the UK illegally, has been allowed to remain in Britain after he successfully claimed that he cannot be deported to Serbia because he no longer speaks Serbian. This is despite Albanian being a recognised minority language in Serbia, and despite him living in this country with his Serbian brother. Does this not demonstrate why we need urgent reform of the asylum system and human rights laws to allow the rapid and effective deportation of such dangerous criminals?

[Alex Chalk]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that those who come to our country and betray this nation’s trust by acting illegally should not expect a warm welcome. That is why one of the things I am most proud of is signing a further prisoner transfer agreement with the Albanians to ensure that the British people, having suffered the initial crime, do not suffer the double punishment of having to pay £49,000 a year to house them in bed and breakfast accommodation in the United Kingdom. We will send them back, and that is exactly what we are doing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alex Chalk and Philip Hollobone

Tuesday 27th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Chalk)]

Our prisoner transfer agreement with Albania came into force in May 2022. To build on that, as I have mentioned before, we announced a new arrangement with the Albanian Government in May this year to speed up prisoner transfers to Albania of the most serious offenders. The Government will energetically pursue bilateral agreements with EU partners and wider-world partners wherever possible.

[Mr Hollobone]

Will the Secretary of State confirm that out of a prison population of 85,000, about 10,000 prisoners—12%—are foreign national offenders? He said earlier that we have over 100 prisoner transfer agreements, but only a handful of them are compulsory, where we send prisoners back whether they want to go back or not. Can we have more compulsory prisoner transfer agreements with countries that have a large number of nationals in our jails?

[Alex Chalk]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue consistently—he was raising it when I first came to the House in 2015, and he is absolutely right to do so. Yes, we will continue to work on the issue. At the risk of stating the obvious, those agreements have to be agreed to by the other nation, but I can assure him that those matters are getting very close focus and attention.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alex Chalk and Philip Hollobone

Tuesday 16th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Alex Chalk]

It is absolutely right that the judiciary, who I respect enormously, do justice on the facts before them. If they feel they can do justice and provide a remedy for the crime that has been committed against society through an unpaid work order, some sort of community disposal or a suspended sentence order, that is a matter for them. The volume of unpaid work orders has gone up, and we are very keen to ensure that the rehabilitation or the unpaid work takes place as close as possible to the community that has been offended against, so that if there has been criminal damage or shoplifting, individuals should pay back their debt to the very society that they betrayed. That is what we would invite courts, in the exercise of their independent discretion, to do.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

T6.   How many probate cases are awaiting a decision for seven weeks or more, and what is the Minister doing to speed up the decision-making process?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alex Chalk and Philip Hollobone

Tuesday 29th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Alex Chalk]

I thank the hon. Lady for paying tribute to law centres; she is absolutely right to do that. They do an important job of ensuring that individuals—sometimes vulnerable individuals—can get that vital legal advice and access to justice that they need. That is why, at the beginning of the pandemic, when the message came out that they might face real threats to their viability, we stepped in. The Law Centres Network asked for £3 million and we provided that. It was distributed through the network to ensure that law centres have the funds they need to continue their excellent work.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

  The number of Albanian prisoners in jail has increased from 524 in 2015 to 1,469 in 2020 and they now represent the largest single national group of foreign national offenders in custody. Although it is very good news that those criminals have been caught and sentenced, given that we have a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement with Albania, which was signed in 2013, why are those convicts not being sent back to Albania to serve out their sentences in prison in their own country?