Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Baroness Fookes Excerpts

Lords Hansard - part two & Committee stage
Wednesday 17th November 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

In calling Amendment 245, I must point out that, if it is accepted, I cannot call Amendment 245A by reason of pre-emption.

Amendment 245

Moved by

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Baroness Fookes Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 24th November 2021 Lords Chamber

Clause 57 agreed.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

The question is that Clause 58 stand part of the Bill.

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

That is in the other group, is it not?

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

No. It is a clause stand part. I paused slightly, but if nobody wishes to speak to it—

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

Is the Clause 58 stand part debate not in the next group?

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

Clause 58 stands on its own to be either agreed or not agreed. I think perhaps the noble Lord wishes to speak to an amendment. No?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I thought they were all grouped together.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

Okay, but I think I need to put Clause 58 to the Committee now. The question is—

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I am sorry. On the Order Paper, it looks as though Clause 58 stand part is the lead amendment. Then there is a series of other amendments and clauses with it.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

Yes, but I must put the question first. The question is that Clause 58 stand part of the Bill.

Debate on whether Clause 58 should stand part of the Bill.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

May I speak now? I apologise. I did not mean to be rude.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

I did actually pause originally, but nobody spoke.

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I am not used to standing up and speaking. If I was in the other place, I would have shouted out.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

Yes, but we do not shout here.

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

Clearly. That is the problem. No, I am glad that we do not. It is sometimes a bit off-putting when there is a nobody shouting at me when I speak, but there we go.

The serious point I want to make is this. Obviously, we have come to Clauses 58 and 59, which relate to various changes to the law with respect to demonstrations outside Parliament. I want to make a general point, because I have not done that already. Some really fascinating points have been made about public protests: the right to protest and the need to balance that with people’s right to be able to go about their lawful business. Clause 58, headed “Obstruction of vehicular access to Parliament”, extends the area, while Clause 59 is headed “Power to specify other areas as controlled areas” and Clause 60 is headed “Intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance”.

On Clauses 58 and 59, I think it was my noble friend Lord Dubs who made the point that many of us, including me, may well have not been able to protest if this law had been there. I am old enough to remember coming here, during a formative time for me as a local councillor in Cotgrave, which was a Nottinghamshire pit village, to demonstrate about pit closures, both in the mid-1980s, in and around the miners’ strike, and at the beginning of the 1990s, when the pit closure programme happened.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I do not know whether it is for me to move the first amendment in the group.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

No.

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Baroness Fookes Excerpts

Lords Hansard - Part 2 & Lords Hansard - part two & Report stage
Wednesday 15th December 2021 Lords Chamber

82: Clause 125, insert the following new Clause—
“Discretionary early discharge of prisoners
In section 23 of the Criminal Justice Act 1961, after subsection (3) insert—“(3ZA) A Minister of the Crown may by regulations establish pilot schemes under which, where a prisoner is to be discharged on a Friday or the day before a bank holiday, they may at the discretion of the governor of the prison be discharged up to two working days earlier than the day on which the prisoner would otherwise be discharged, provided that—(a) it would be helpful for the prisoner’s reintegration into society, and(b) the prisoner has served a custodial sentence of more than 30 days. (3ZB) The power to make regulations under subsection (3ZA) expires after the period of two years beginning with the day on which this Act is passed, and any pilot scheme must have concluded within that period.””Member’s explanatory statement
This amendment would enable trials of schemes for early discharge from prison which would reduce the bunching of releases on Fridays to take place during a two-year trial period.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

There is a slight mistake on the Marshalled List. It should read “After Clause 125”.

[Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Con)]

My Lords, Amendment 82 is concerned about Friday prisoner releases, or perhaps I should say the bunching of releases of prisoners on Fridays. I place on record my thanks for the support that I have received from around the House, from the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, and the noble Lords, Lord German and Lord Ramsbotham, and from NACRO, which has done a lot of work and research on this subject over many years.

There is always the danger at this stage of a Bill’s proceedings that you just rehearse familiar arguments and regurgitate facts that have been introduced before. I want to avoid that tonight and instead state briefly the central thesis that concerns me and my fellow supporters; state how we have changed and amended it to meet the points made by the Government at the earlier stage of the Bill; and then explain why we have retabled it in this new form today.

The basic thesis is that when you are sentenced, the court sets a calendar date for your release, not a day of the week. If that calendar date falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or—if it is a bank holiday—a Monday, the prisoner will be released on the previous Friday. A quick bit of mental arithmetic will show noble Lords that some three-sevenths of all prisoners are likely to be released on a Friday. Equally, it is clear to us all that Friday is the last day of the week and so, as the afternoon wears on, the local authority and voluntary services begin to wind down. Because a greater number of prisoners are being released, inevitably they are reaching the places where they can access those services later, so they are even more likely to be closing down. Added to that, the prisoner may well have been released from a prison that is some way from his home town, and in the event perhaps he has no home anyway.

Wrap all that together with the discharge grant, which has now been raised from £46 to £76, a sum on which he or she has to live for two or three days, after allowing for any travel expenses that may have been required. The result is that prisoners who may have no accommodation or support, facing the challenges of freedom after a period of incarceration, are having to do so on very limited financial resources. I suggest that it would be hard to construct a set of circumstances in which the temptation to reoffend could be greater.

In Committee, we argued that giving prison governors five-day flexibility on the day of release could help to tackle this issue of bunching and so improve the opportunities for rehabilitation and reduce the chances of reoffending. In his response, my noble friend Lord Wolfson, while recognising the force of the amendment and that it had a core kernel of truth that needed to be addressed, argued—quite persuasively, in my view—that the amendment was deficient in three ways. First, he said that efforts to avoid the effects of Friday bunching needed to be focused on prisoners where the chances of rehabilitation were greatest—a fair point. Secondly, he said that a five-day release window was too long—I understand that. Thirdly, he said that was particularly significant in the case of short custodial sentences. So we sharpened our pencils and tabled a revised amendment to meet those criticisms.

--- Later in debate ---

Amendment 83 agreed.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

The noble Baroness, Lady Harris, will take part remotely in the next debate.

Amendment 84

Moved by

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Baroness Fookes Excerpts

Consideration of Commons amendments
Tuesday 26th April 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Paddick]

Leave out from “House” to end and insert “do insist on its Amendment 80, do insist on its disagreement with the Commons in their Amendments 80A, 80B, 80C, 80D, 80E, 80F and 80H to the words restored to the Bill by their disagreement with that Amendment, do insist on its Amendment 80J instead of the words left out of the Bill by that Amendment and do disagree with the Commons in their Amendment 80K to the words restored to the Bill by their disagreement with Lords Amendment 80.”

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Fookes) (Con)]

I should inform the House that if Motion B1 is agreed to, I will not be able to call Motion B2 for reasons of pre-emption.

[Lord Paddick (LD)]

I wish to test the opinion of the House.