Criminal Justice System: Adults with Autism

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Tuesday 30th January 2018 Westminster Hall

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) on securing this important debate.

Let us be clear. Autistic people are discriminated against in society as a whole, but especially in the criminal justice system. They can face discrimination when their autism is not readily apparent, or no help is offered. Where it is apparent, they are often treated differently or suspiciously. Autistic people without a learning disability are nine times more likely to die by suicide than the rest of the population. That figure is considerably high and shows the lack of understanding and awareness of the needs of people with autism.

On occasions when an autistic person comes to the attention of the police and other services, it is normally because their social and communication difficulties are misunderstood or they have not been given appropriate support. Autistic people can become extremely distressed in situations that they do not understand or when they are surrounded by noise and confusion. In such circumstances, their actions and behaviour can easily be misinterpreted and subsequent actions may escalate a situation.

The criminal justice system needs to reform and adapt in order to meet its fundamental human rights obligations to treat people fairly and equitably. The National Autistic Society developed its autism accreditation scheme for prison settings. Accreditation covers autism understanding training for prison staff such as guards, but is also more widely helping to make the prison environment more autism friendly. Accreditation should be extended to all prisons, all detention centres, all courts and all police stations, as well as to the probation service. The duty must be on the prisons and courts and their individual officers to ensure the fair treatment of those in contact with the criminal justice system. Individual officers could also be accredited. There should be a requirement for at least one key individual in central functions to be accredited: for example, duty sergeants or clerks of the court.

Accreditation recognises good practice, which helps ensure that people on the autistic spectrum get the extra support needed to adjust to life in prison, and extra support while they serve a sentence, or as they prepare for leaving prison. Without that support, autistic people may develop additional needs such as mental health problems or risky behaviour, and rehabilitation will be harder. Greater awareness and support will benefit autistic people as well as prison staff, police officers and managers in that area of work. Expert opinion is clear that autism sufferers need special and sensitive treatment, especially in a stressful criminal justice environment.

[Kevin Brennan]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the way she is responding to the debate. What she just said has triggered a thought, and I want to quote a comment made by someone in the professional standards department of the police service about the complaint by my constituent. It begins:

“I’ve read this several times and they just don’t get it do they”

and notes that my constituents “continue to maintain” that their son

“should have been ‘diverted’ prior to arrest. What utter rubbish!”

If that is the continuing attitude in the police, does my hon. Friend agree that we have a long way to go to get things right?

[Carolyn Harris]

We certainly do have a long way to go, and what my hon. Friends have said emphasises what we all know: we need to look at autism as a special consideration.

For many autistic people, prison means the system has failed. Work must be done with probation services and police forces to create a specification for autism accreditation in those settings. That will help to prevent autistic adults from entering the criminal justice system in the first place and it will certainly help with rehabilitation. More training and support must be given to initial responders to crime, including those working with witnesses and victims. Initial contact with the police will often come at a time of heightened anxiety, so it is important that the police know how to approach such a situation and how not to allow it to escalate.

[Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that training for police officers in that situation would help them to prevent reoffending or revictimisation? I think that our colleagues in the police share the aim of reducing those things.

[Carolyn Harris]

It is certainly my experience, from talking to police officers, that they would appreciate training so that they could better understand the condition, and how to deal with autistic offenders. That understanding is vital for the criminal justice system. If we are to regard people with autism in a fair and equal way we must look at how we provide for their needs. I am sure that the Minister has listened to the wise words spoken by many colleagues today, and that he will offer us some hope that the Government will consider the issue and treat it with some urgency.

Draft Transfer of Responsibility for Relevant Children (Extension to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) Regulations 2017

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd January 2018 General Committees

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hosie. The Opposition welcome the measures, but it is no secret that we are not thrilled with the Government’s attitude to refugees, particularly unaccompanied child refugees. Our major issues of contention centre on the Dubs amendment, which, despite receiving cross-party support, has been restrictive and has not been implemented in the spirit in which it was introduced. When safe and legal routes are blocked for those children, they are left with terrible choices that often involve people traffickers. Those children have been identified as the most vulnerable in the world, and often include girls who are susceptible to sex traffickers. A number local authorities across Britain have repeatedly expressed their willingness to accept more child refugees, and every measure that allows them to do that is a positive step towards meeting our moral and legal responsibilities towards those children. The more councils that pitch in, the better. Local councils are of course the best placed to support refugees who arrive in the UK. These measures may assist, but they do not go far enough. The Government must do more to ensure that local authorities have the resources they need to meet their obligations.

Drug Consumption Rooms

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Wednesday 17th January 2018 Westminster Hall

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Inverclyde (Ronnie Cowan) on securing this important debate. I thank all hon. Members not just for their contribution, but for sticking with us through this very disturbed debate. I congratulate you, Ms Ryan, on steering the ship safely to the end.

The Opposition have made no secret of our disappointment in last year’s drug strategy. We waited nearly two years for it; frankly, we expected something more radical, more substantial and certainly with more funding. No amount of gloss can hide the significant problems with the approach to drugs policy that the Government have taken since taking power in 2010: it has been ideological and plagued with irresponsible cuts.

All the Members in the debate have expressed the truly shocking scale of the problem. The UK has the highest recorded level of mortality from drug use since records began. There are record numbers of deaths from morphine, heroin and cocaine use. There are more deaths from overdoses than from traffic accidents, and there is an ever-increasing incidence of HIV and hepatitis transmitted via unhygienic injecting.

Drug consumption rooms have operated in Europe for three decades, most notably in countries that have had greater success in reducing drug deaths than we have. Even if the Government are misguided and will not look at evidence from other countries, I would have thought that they would have taken the advice of their Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. In 2016, in response to the unprecedented drug deaths, it recommended that the Government consider the introduction of drug consumption rooms. I believe the response was:

“It is for local areas in the UK to consider, with those responsible for law enforcement, how best to deliver services to meet their local population needs.”

I agree that the local authorities are best placed to deliver such services. However, when responsibility for alcohol and drug treatments was transferred from the NHS to local authorities in 2013, it signalled the most significant and problematic change to funding. Although I am not criticising our overstretched local authorities, the transfer of responsibility brought an end to the ring-fenced budget for drug treatment, resulting in a reduction of services.

In an ideal world, no-one would take those harmful substances, but we do not live in an ideal world. Therefore, we cannot base life or death decisions on ideology. We have to go with what works. If the evidence is clear that drug consumption rooms prevent overdose deaths and the spread of disease, we at least need to trial them. Glasgow was set to do that until it was blocked by the Government. The Member for Inverclyde secured the debate for the main purpose of calling for the devolution of drug legislation to Scotland, but the drugs problem is UK-wide and we need a UK-wide solution.

Like many, I am uncomfortable with the uncertainty we often find ourselves in when it comes to drugs and the law: legal highs, more widespread drug use, changes in legislation in other countries, decreased prosecutions for lesser drug offences and even festivals such as Glastonbury offering drug testing facilities. We have been sending mixed messages for far too long. We must address that before we are to move forward in a meaningful way.

The Opposition are clear: the ever-increasing spread of disease and record number of deaths from drug use are unacceptable. This must be dealt with as an urgent public health issue. The Government must take responsibility and they must review the legislation as a priority.

Oral Answers to Questions

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Monday 8th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Amber Rudd]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. We are able to confirm that this year up to £450 million of new money is going to support the police, while another £50 million is going towards counter-terrorism policing. However, that does not mean that we want to slow down the pace of reform in any way, so we will work with the police to ensure that there are reforms to make them more efficient and better servants to the community so that everybody has a better service overall.

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

Last week, Theodore Johnson, a serial killer and repeated domestic violence perpetrator, was sentenced to 26 years in prison for his crimes. However, despite the fact that two women are murdered every week, high-risk perpetrators such as Johnson face little intervention from statutory services. With less than 1% of perpetrators of domestic violence receiving any form of intervention, will the Minister reassure us that the Government will look urgently at innovative programmes such as Drive that challenge the behaviours of high-harm perpetrators?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Victoria Atkins)]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question and offer our condolences not only to the family of Angela Best, but to the families of Yvonne Johnson and Yvonne Bennett. The case shows how manipulative the most violent domestic abusers can be, and I join the hon. Lady in wanting to ensure that we treat perpetrators to try to stop the cycle of violence. With the hon. Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire), I had the pleasure of speaking at a recent event for Respect, which works with perpetrators, and the hon. Member for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris) is correct that we must look at perpetrators as well as, of course, at supporting victims.

Draft Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Search, Seizure and Detention of Property: Code of Practice) Order 2018 Draft Proceeds of crime Act 2002 (Cash Searches: Code of Practice) Order 2018 Draft Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Recovery of Listed Assets: Code of Practice) (England and Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2018 Draft Criminal Finances Act 2017 (Consequential Amendment) Regulations 2018

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Monday 4th December 2017 General Committees

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

Thank you, Ms Buck, for chairing the Committee. The Opposition generally support such measures, but with some reservations. We of course welcome any new provision to prosecute, prevent and seize the assets of criminals. However, amid continued cuts to public services, I am interested to hear exactly how the measures will be fully and robustly enforced. There have been staff cuts in literally every agency carrying out this work, from the police to Border Force, to revenue officers.

I remind the Minister of Labour’s argument that agencies involved in exercising civil recovery powers should have enough resources to do their job properly. He may recall that we requested a distinct and clear annual report, detailing the resources that are allocated to agencies strictly for carrying out the recovery powers. The Conservatives objected to that during the early stages of the Proceeds of Crime Act, on the grounds that the asset recovery incentivisation scheme would allow frontline agencies to keep 100% of the illicit value that they recover. In theory, the agencies could retain the total value recovered, but as was made clear by the Public Accounts Committee at the time in its progress review of confiscation orders and by the Home Affairs Committee in its review of POCA, the agencies’ recovery rates have been poor. Although the measures appear to convey greater powers to the agencies, there is no guarantee that they will improve their recovery rates. Given the failure to achieve that in recent Bills, we had hoped that these orders might go further.

We also note with concern that the said powers will be conferred on immigration officers. Although that makes sense in theory, will the Minister explain whether that includes agents of the state such as G4S and Serco? I remind the Government of the complete lack of trust in those agencies, following recent revelations in immigration detention centres, such as Brook House and Yarl’s Wood. If we cannot trust those individuals to deal with human beings professionally, that clearly indicates that we may not be able to trust them with other matters. Those matters aside, which we would appreciate the Minister’s assurances on, we will support the orders.

Draft Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Search, Seizure and Detention of Property: Code of Practice) Order 2018 Draft Proceeds of crime Act 2002 (Cash Searches: Code of Practice) Order 2018 Draft Prceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Recovery of Listed Assets: Code of Practice) (England and Wales and Scotland) Regulations 2018 Draft Criminal Finances Act 2017 (Consequential Amendment) Regulations 2018

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Monday 4th December 2017 General Committees

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

Thank you, Ms Buck, for chairing the Committee. The Opposition generally support such measures, but with some reservations. We of course welcome any new provision to prosecute, prevent and seize the assets of criminals. However, amid continued cuts to public services, I am interested to hear exactly how the measures will be fully and robustly enforced. There have been staff cuts in literally every agency carrying out this work, from the police to Border Force, to revenue officers.

I remind the Minister of Labour’s argument that agencies involved in exercising civil recovery powers should have enough resources to do their job properly. He may recall that we requested a distinct and clear annual report, detailing the resources that are allocated to agencies strictly for carrying out the recovery powers. The Conservatives objected to that during the early stages of the Proceeds of Crime Act, on the grounds that the asset recovery incentivisation scheme would allow frontline agencies to keep 100% of the illicit value that they recover. In theory, the agencies could retain the total value recovered, but as was made clear by the Public Accounts Committee at the time in its progress review of confiscation orders and by the Home Affairs Committee in its review of POCA, the agencies’ recovery rates have been poor. Although the measures appear to convey greater powers to the agencies, there is no guarantee that they will improve their recovery rates. Given the failure to achieve that in recent Bills, we had hoped that these orders might go further.

We also note with concern that the said powers will be conferred on immigration officers. Although that makes sense in theory, will the Minister explain whether that includes agents of the state such as G4S and Serco? I remind the Government of the complete lack of trust in those agencies, following recent revelations in immigration detention centres, such as Brook House and Yarl’s Wood. If we cannot trust those individuals to deal with human beings professionally, that clearly indicates that we may not be able to trust them with other matters. Those matters aside, which we would appreciate the Minister’s assurances on, we will support the orders.

Modern Slavery Act 2015

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Thursday 26th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

I wish to start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Vernon Coaker) on not only securing today’s debate, but the excellent way he takes a lead on this important issue. I also congratulate my hon. Friends the Members for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy), for Bristol North West (Darren Jones), for Rochdale (Tony Lloyd) and for Nottingham North (Alex Norris) on their excellent contributions today. I pay special tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley (Jess Phillips) and the hon. Member for Livingston (Hannah Bardell) for bringing the real-life consequences of the evil practice of slavery into the Chamber today.

When this House passed the Modern Slavery Act 2015 it was a landmark piece of legislation that provided leadership on a global scale. However, the lack of subsequent legislation has meant that it now risks becoming less effective on key issues of the fight against modern slavery. I will start by setting the scene: 45.8 million people are enslaved worldwide—this can mean anything from forced labour to forced marriage and forced sexual exploitation. In the UK, one of the most well developed countries in the world, an estimated 13,000 people are in modern-day slavery—that is far too many.

As was mentioned by the hon. Member for Erewash (Maggie Throup), companies that have made statements under section 54 of the Act are in the minority; the majority have not done so. Where they have made a statement, the quality ranges from the very good—I would specifically name Marks & Spencer and the Co-operative here—to the almost worthless. Yet, Ministers have done nothing to address this, leaving businesses free to carry on and take no action, despite what this House legislated for. We must put into place a regime where this House can be confident that its wishes, as expressed, and the commitments in the Modern Slavery Act, will be fulfilled. So I ask the Minister: when will the Government publish a list of all companies that should be producing statements on their modern slavery policies?

We all acknowledge that the police do a fantastic job when they protect and rescue individuals from slavery, but the HMIC report published earlier this week was a stark reality check for us all. The report tells us that all too often the trafficker’s threats to the victims—that they have no means of escape, as they will not be believed—have sadly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The report’s biggest critique was that policing against modern slavery and human trafficking is reactive rather than proactive, so more must be done to support vulnerable people to ensure that they will not be placed in the hands of traffickers. It is vital that we learn how traffickers prey on their victims, so that we are able to be more effective with preventions and protections. Does the Minister agree that there is a real need to improve training for the police, to help them better understand how to identify victims and how best to respond to issues?

I want to move on to the problematic national referral mechanism. Adults are required to consent to their referral, but without appropriate funding, support and accommodation, and a suitable environment where they can get proper advice to allow them to make informed decisions, far too many turn to homelessness or, even worse, return to their traffickers. All too often, NRM forms are rushed, just to make sure that the person concerned has access to accommodation. That means that some forms are incomplete or contain inaccurate information, undermining the individual’s credibility. Legal advice and representation must be offered early to all potential victims, to support them in understanding their rights, and in giving them access to justice and a real opportunity to move on with their lives. Government support is withdrawn quickly after a conclusive groundwork decision is made, and non-governmental organisations are all too often having to pick up the pieces because of a lack of resources and awareness among local authorities. Safe house accommodation should be more flexible, with support diminishing gradually according to an individual’s needs; they should not just have the rug pulled from under them.

Not only is this lack of support detrimental to the individuals, but it makes it difficult for police and prosecutors to do their job. Police have spoken about losing survivors due to the lack of support, and NGOs have spoken about anxiety caused by an insecure immigration status and how that prevents survivors in dealing with their traumatic experiences. Victims are entitled to only 45 days of NRM support following rescue, and that is simply not enough. Regardless of how well organised that 45 days’ support is, it is still not enough. Many of those rescued want to regain control of their lives through schemes such as the Co-op’s “Bright Future” project, which gives them a pathway back to paid employment, but they cannot do so because either they have not had the support to get them ready for work or they do not have the legal right to work.

Victims continue to be denied access to the vital services that they need to recover and rebuild their lives. Authorities often prioritise immigration control over the safety of victims. That can leave adults and children vulnerable to going missing. Traffickers see these individuals as vulnerable, and they exploit the existing system using evil and despicable practices. I welcome the fact that the NRM is being reformed, but I hope that during the reform process organisations such as the Human Trafficking Foundation, ECPAT UK and UNICEF are listened to and their advice heeded.

Slavery touches our lives every day, whether we know it or not. No country is free from this horrific crime and no one is safe: women, men, youngsters and, worse still, children are vulnerable. Exploitation on any level is unjustifiable, but when it involves a child it is chillingly deplorable. I have a huge concern that no specialist support or accommodation for trafficked children is available under the NRM. I urge the Minister to address that as a matter of urgency.

We passed the legislation two years ago, but it has been left to go stale, through a lack of enforcement, additional legislation or desire. Victims of modern slavery and trafficking are still being criminalised for crimes they were forced to commit. There is no clear pathway or continuity of support for victims, and the inconsistent training and co-ordination of services that are in place to protect them can be a hindrance because of a lack of knowledge, appropriate training and funding.

We are dealing with the most vulnerable individuals. This is a modern scourge with historical roots. Too many people rely on us to protect them from danger and to offer them support, so we must make sure that the service we offer is robust, reliable and effective.

Oral Answers to Questions

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Monday 3rd July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

T6. Ann Jones, the Welsh Assembly Member for Vale of Clwyd, successfully steered through Welsh Government legislation to make it compulsory to have sprinklers in new-builds and to retrofit them in refurbished residential buildings. Will the Home Secretary follow the Welsh Government’s example and work with her Cabinet colleagues towards making that a UK-wide policy?

[Mr Hurd]

I refer the hon. Lady to what I said before. The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is making a statement this afternoon, and the Prime Minister has made several statements about the way forward in reviewing regulations, guidance and the whole inspection and risk-monitoring regime, which will include guidance on sprinklers. As the hon. Lady will know, sprinklers have different applications in different locations; there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Draft Immigration Act 2016 (Consequential Amendments) (Biometrics and Legal Aid) Regulations 2017

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Tuesday 18th April 2017 General Committees

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Davies. Illustrious—you’ll have people talking about us.

The Minister will be aware that the amendment we are discussing could well have been included in the body of the 2016 Act, and the fact that we are discussing it today indicates that the Act was prepared in haste. We need to be cautious that that haste is not replicated. We are concerned that legal representatives for bail applications were unaware that the proposed commencement date of the immigration bail provision was 30 April 2017 until they received revised bail forms on 4 April. Charitable organisations working with those on temporary admission, and indeed Members of this House, were left to find out about these changes at third hand.

The term “immigration bail” stigmatises an individual as a criminal, when in reality many on immigration bail are asylum seekers. The terminology risks fuelling hatred and xenophobia, which was arguably the cause of the recent, very vicious attack on a young man in Croydon.

The light in this dark tunnel is that with the new immigration bail provisions will come an automatic judicial review for detainees, in the form of a bail hearing every four months. We need to ensure that those brought before an immigration judge for the lawfulness of their detention receive the appropriate consideration, because getting it wrong is a high price to pay.

The adults at risk guidance brought in as a result of the 2016 Act was intended to increase protection from wrongful detention for those at particular risk, such as survivors of torture and trafficking, and those with mental and physical health problems. Instead, it has been more difficult for those people to secure release. In order to ameliorate the situation, the courts were forced to issue an injunction to require the Home Office to revert to the more inclusive definition of torture used in the old guidance. That is a direct challenge to the restrictive definition used in the new guidance, which means that most survivors of torture are at risk of detention.

We have already seen two fatalities in immigration detention this year: a 27-year-old Polish man was found dead in January—the day after his wife gave birth to their child—and at the beginning of April a 44-year-old man died at the Verne immigration detention centre. I urge the Minister to review the adults at risk policy and lay more proactive guidance before Parliament.

With regard to legal aid, I ask the Minister to place on the parliamentary record the statement in the explanatory memorandum that there is

“no change in policy… The policy intention is that legal aid availability will be maintained as before, ensuring that there is no effective change to the availability of legal aid when the Schedule 10 provisions are commenced and the existing powers repealed.”

It is imperative that the Government’s review of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, scheduled to commence this year, examines legal aid for those deprived of their liberty. There is legal aid for challenges to immigration detention, but without dealing with the merits of the immigration case it may be difficult to secure release, and there is no legal aid for immigration cases. For those detained in the prison estate, even a challenge to detention may be out of reach in practice.

As of September 2016, 558 prisoners were held under Immigration Act powers in prisons. In February 2017, the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees published “Mind the Gap: Immigration Advice for Detainees in Prison”, which found that less than a quarter of immigration detainees surveyed in prison have access to an immigration solicitor. That situation must be addressed.

Although Opposition Members will cautiously support the Government today, we ask that the issues I have raised receive the appropriate attention and scrutiny they deserve.

Oral Answers to Questions

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Policing and the Fire Service (Brandon Lewis)]

My hon. Friend gives a really good example of a very forward thinking police force in Essex. Credit must go to the police and crime commissioner and the chief constable for the work that they are doing to use modern techniques and good technology to drive forward and to be efficient and effective. That is a good example of why we are increasing the police transformation fund to some £175 million this year.

[Carolyn Harris (Swansea East) (Lab)]

Does the Home Secretary really believe that the 45 days of support for suspected victims of trafficking is adequate, given that the organisations working at the coalface of the problem, such as the Human Trafficking Foundation, the Salvation Army, the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group, the Snowdrop Project, City Hearts and ECPAT, all say that it is completely unrealistic to expect to deal with the immigration, psychological, economic and housing issues that these vulnerable individuals are experiencing in 45 days? All those organisations also agree that this lethal combination is exposing victims to the real possibility of being re-trafficked.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Sarah Newton)]

I think that it is important to remember that the Prime Minister has led a global challenge to crack down on slavery. We now have some of the best anti-trafficking legislation in the world, and really excellent protection for victims. What the hon. Lady said is not actually correct, because the average time that people receive through the national referral mechanism is 90 days. We are working on reforms to the system to ensure that it is absolutely the best in the world.