Oral Answers to Questions

Bradley Thomas Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)]

1. What steps her Department is taking to help reduce the backlog of cases in the Crown court.

[Bradley Thomas (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

10. What steps her Department is taking to help reduce the backlog of cases in the Crown court.

[Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (North Cotswolds) (Con)]

12. When her Department expects the Crown court backlog to decrease.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bradley Thomas]

Constituents across Bromsgrove and the villages are sick and tired of violent criminality and lawlessness creeping over the border from Birmingham into our constituency. In the past year, Romsley Co-op and Wythall post office at Drakes Cross—both of which are on the northern fringe of my constituency—have been raided, and it is hard to believe that proximity to Birmingham is not a factor in that. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that prosecutions are pursued and custodial sentences are given in the first instance, to crack down on crime and make our area safe again?

[Shabana Mahmood]

Through our landmark review of sentencing, this Government are ensuring that sentencing is fit for purpose. That will ultimately put us in a position where we can crack down on reoffending, thereby cutting crime and the number of victims. I am not sure whether the hon. Gentleman is proposing carving out his part of the world from any other part of the country, but his argument about boundaries can apply to any part of the UK. That is why we need a functioning justice system for the whole of England and Wales, and that is what this Government are going to deliver.