Offender Rehabilitation Bill [Lords]

Debate between Andy McDonald and Lord Beith

Monday 11th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Sir Alan Beith]

No, I will conclude because many hon. Members wish to speak.

Elements of the Bill will provide the opportunity to realise the Justice Committee’s vision of how we can reduce crime through more effective use of taxpayers’ money. Currently, we waste taxpayers’ money in not dealing effectively with reoffending. That must change. However, there are significant risks in the pace at which the Government intend to implement the programme. We must ask questions about that, and my Committee will do so.

Interpreting and Translation Services

Debate between Andy McDonald and Lord Beith

Thursday 20th June 2013 Westminster Hall

[Sir Alan Beith]

No, but we think that the Ministry of Justice should have some reasonable estimates of those costs. Such estimates are quite hard to put together, but we have talked to people in the courts—judges, counsel, solicitors and court staff—and they all point to incidents, each of which involves significant additional costs, which clearly have to be offset against the savings.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

Does the right hon. Gentleman share my concern that we are hearing from people, such as the chairman of the Bar Council, about the significant costs and money wasted when trials collapse because of failures under the terms of the contract? Does he share my view that perhaps we would be better served if we considered saving those costs, rather than embarking on a revolution in legal aid provision and putting all that at risk again?

East Coast Main Line

Debate between Andy McDonald and Lord Beith

Wednesday 5th June 2013 Westminster Hall

[Andy McDonald]

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. The carbon footprint that we all imprint upon this planet is a vital issue, and she makes that point eloquently.

Ministers have admitted in the House of Commons that new investment in both rail infrastructure and new rolling stock on the east coast will come through taxpayer-funded support and not from franchisees. Funding for the 2014-19 upgrade of the east coast main line will be delivered through the Office of Rail Regulation approving a £240 million increase in the value of Network Rail’s regulatory access base. Regardless of whether the refranchising of the east coast main line goes ahead, the public, through Network Rail, will still be paying for the track. We will still be paying for the rolling stock, and we will still be paying for any upgrades, extensions or electrification that might ensue. None of the upgrades is dependent on whether the trains going along the track are painted Virgin red or Stagecoach orange. There is no deadline by which the franchise must take place, except, of course, the next election.

[Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on bringing this matter forward. The Labour Government set a deadline for re-privatising the line, and even when they were unable to meet it, they continued to have it as their policy that the line should be re-privatised. Has the Labour party changed that policy?

[Andy McDonald]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention. We are where we are, and we have to look at the matter on the facts of this specific franchise, examining it carefully to see whether it is working, right at this moment. Comments have been made in the context of reports that had only half the story, so when we have better information we should read it, consider it and judge accordingly, but I hear what the right hon. Gentleman says.

It is absurd for the Government to be pressing ahead with another franchise proposal when the previous franchise offering, of the west coast main line, was such a debacle and will have cost the taxpayer £100 million by the time it is resolved.

Justice Committee Report: Youth Justice

Debate between Andy McDonald and Lord Beith

Thursday 14th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Beith]

Indeed, that is a point we make quite firmly: that the accommodation needs of people leaving custody are often not met adequately. If they are dumped in bed and breakfast without adequate support, that is no help to them.

That applies particularly to looked-after children—that is, children who have been in care. Frankly, we were shocked by the evidence we received showing that vulnerable children are effectively being abandoned by children’s and social services. Public authorities have a duty to ensure that looked-after children are not at greater risk of being drawn into the criminal justice system than other children simply because they lack normal family homes. Poor behaviour that would be dealt with in the family should not be an express route into the criminal justice system. We heard one example of police being called to a children’s home to investigate broken crockery. The relevant authorities must also continue to provide support to looked-after children when they get into the criminal justice system and, even more, when they leave it. We were concerned that the relevant authorities often seem to end their relationship of providing support once looked-after children enter the criminal justice system, particularly if they go into custody, and we are talking about a group of very vulnerable children.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his excellent chairmanship of the Committee. Does he agree that one of the key messages to come out of our work is about encouraging local authorities and prosecutors to deal with trivial offences involving looked-after children not in a way that causes them to enter the criminal justice system, but in the same way as ordinary families would? While I have his attention, may I also commend the report for its identification of the issue of brain injury among those in custody? The report sets out that although 10% of the population may sustain a brain injury, the incidence among those in custody is much higher, at 50% to 60%. Neuropsychological assessments of those in custody would be an excellent measure, and I congratulate him on flagging it up.

[Sir Alan Beith]

What a telling statistic the hon. Gentleman has brought out—indeed, he brought it to the attention of the Committee, too. Although we are glad that a new system of assessment, ASSET-plus—assessing semantic skills through everyday themes—has been approved for use by the Government, we think it will take more than that to identify children who are vulnerable to that and a number of other health-related reasons. As for his point about treating looked-after children more as they would be treated in a family, if restorative justice skills are available and can be deployed and if training is provided, that can help to deal with difficult situations without putting looked-after children into the criminal justice system.