Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Bill

Debate between Damian Hinds and Jane Hunt

Committee stage
Wednesday 8th February 2023 Public Bill Committees

[Jane Hunt (Loughborough) (Con)]

I am delighted to speak in favour of the Bill. I might go over some of the points that have been made, but I will make others as well. The estimated economic and social cost to this country of reoffending is £18.1 billion a year. Research has found that those who have chaotic experiences in the community before or after custody, such as insecure accommodation, employment needs or substance misuse, are more likely to reoffend. In 2018-19, approximately 40% of adult prisoners were released to unsettled accommodation, rough sleeping or homelessness, or their accommodation status was unknown on the first night of release. Around 42% of prisoners have either an alcohol or drugs need, or both.

The prison strategy White Paper set out a number of ways to improve the situation, including education services, dealing with dependency on drugs and help to get people into work following release, all of which are excellent ideas. They all cost money, though, and that money could be wasted with an ex-offender leaving prison on a Friday with a few pounds in their pocket and potentially nowhere to go, with no agencies open to offer support over the weekend.

As a councillor with Charnwood Borough Council— I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests because I still am a councillor— I was lucky enough to chair a series of panels on reducing reoffending, and I met not only ex-offenders, police and housing support officers, but local charities that work to support ex-offenders, which Loughborough simply could not do without. Charities such as Exaireo, the Carpenter’s Arms, the Bridge and Futures Unlocked all offer outstanding service to ex-offenders and others from across the country to help them to turn their lives around. I have seen the work of those charities; it is exemplary. I continue to support them in all they do.

As part of one panel’s work, we took evidence and made a series of recommendations. There are six pages of recommendations, but I will refer only to one, which states:

“The Panel makes representations to the local MPs, in respect of the day of the week prisoners are released from prison and highlight the issues surrounding Friday release.”

This is the reason for that recommendation:

“Support for offenders is not readily available on a Friday or over the weekend. Therefore a release earlier in the week provides officers with greater opportunities to divert offenders away from previous habits and ‘friends’ towards services to provide support in respect of housing, benefits and health related issues.”

That work was done in 2011, so it has taken us some time, but I believe we are making good progress today.

While I have the Minister’s ear, I will briefly mention another recommendation we made. Offenders who live in social accommodation can lose their accommodation after 13 weeks and two days. The relevant council or arm’s length organisation can empty the property of all the contents, including important documents that might be used to gain employment after leaving prison, such as birth certificates, passports and driving licences, all of which cost money and time to replace. Perhaps the next Bill we should see before us is one that asks councils to preserve such documents so that a person leaving prison can take up employment at the first opportunity.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Workington, who introduced the Bill, and my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness, who has taken up the challenge. With one small Bill, they are going to make a big difference to people’s lives, and I thank them for doing so.

[The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Damian Hinds)]

It is a real pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Vickers, and to serve under your chairmanship for the first time. I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Workington and for Barrow and Furness. It has been a remarkable Cumbrian double act and partnership to bring the Bill to Parliament. My hon. Friend the Member for Workington spoke passionately and comprehensively about the content of the Bill and its effect.

The Bill is a simple measure, but a highly leveraged one that will have far-reaching and positive consequences. It will give custody leavers a better chance to access the services and support that they need to reintegrate into the community and turn their backs on a life of crime. Ultimately, as my hon. Friend the Member for Workington said, that is a matter of public safety and fewer people becoming victims.

As the Committee has heard, the Bill will ensure that those with resettlement needs will no longer need to be released on a Friday or the day before a bank holiday. The Secretary of State will be provided with a discretionary power to bring forward a release date by up to two eligible working days. As my hon. Friend said, currently offenders leaving on a Friday have only a short period—sometimes a very short period after travel—to access services before they close for the weekend. That can put them at risk of not being able to gain access to essential support such as accommodation, medication and financial support until Monday, or even longer if there is a bank holiday, and that brings obvious risks. It is a real challenge for people with complex needs and those with long distances to travel. The Bill will help to bring an end to that. My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud made the point about family ties—we know how important they are—and being able to make stable reconnections on release.

The Government are committed to the rehabilitation of offenders. The Bill forms part of a much wider strategy to improve the services offered to offenders before they leave prison and on release. I am pleased and proud to set out the tangible progress that has already been made in tackling the huge cost of reoffending, which my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough mentioned. The latest published data show that in the decade from 2009-10 to 2019-20, overall proven reoffending has decreased. It is still too high, but it has decreased from 30.9% to 25.6%, and of course we want to continue to drive that rate down.

We are investing in prison leavers’ access to accommodation and in building stronger links with employers through dedicated prison employment leads and prison employment advisory boards, at which local business leaders can interface with their local prison. Members of Parliament also have an important role to play in bringing business and future employers together with future employment opportunities. We are also offering more chances to work while in prison—it is important to have that rhythm, routine and experience of ongoing work.

We are delivering a prisoner education service to raise the skills of offenders, including by focusing on poor literacy, numeracy and the vocational skills that employers look for and that are in demand today. We are increasing access to drugs rehabilitation through the recruitment of health and justice partnership co-ordinators to better link up services for offenders. That programme of work should improve resettlement opportunities for all offenders.

The Bill that my hon. Friend the Member for Workington has introduced will help to address the practical challenges that hold offenders back from taking full advantage of the services on offer. It is part of our drive to give offenders the best possible chance of living law-abiding and productive lives in the community. As the Committee has heard, the Bill also applies to children sentenced to detention and will operate across all youth settings, including the recently created secure 16-to-19 academies.

I thank all Committee members—including my hon. Friends the Members for Orpington, for Clwyd South, for Dewsbury and for Hastings and Rye—for their diligent examination of the Bill. On the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough made about documentation, I reassure her that work on identity documents and the things people need to have in place for employment is a focus for us in the Department. The particular suggestion she made was very interesting and, if she is amenable, I would be keen to hear further from her on that.

Finally, I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Workington and for Barrow and Furness for bringing forward the Bill. I am pleased to confirm that the Government back it.

Firefighters’ Pension Scheme

Debate between Damian Hinds and Jane Hunt

Monday 28th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Security and Borders (Damian Hinds)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Jane Hunt) on securing this debate. I am grateful to her, and I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the important issue of firefighters’ pensions. The Government hugely value the unique roles that our firefighters undertake and it is only right that their pensions remain among the best pension schemes available in the public sector. Our brave firefighters keep us safe. They do the most extraordinary job day in, day out, in the most difficult situations.

The Government also recognise that the cost of providing public service pensions must be fair to the schemes’ members, the employers and the taxpayer. It is important that the costs of public service pensions are understood and fully acknowledged by Government so that they remain affordable and sustainable for generations to come.

[Jane Hunt]

I absolutely understand that, but this is about the discretionary element. As I see it, there is only one instance of this happening. The Prime Minister said at the time that the fire service could look at this, but the fire service does not believe that it can do so because of the rules and regulations. It is the discretionary element that I am interested in.

[Damian Hinds]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. There is some limited ability under the rules for fire authorities to exercise some discretion on some decisions. That would involve, for example, determining whether a person was on duty or not at the time of an injury or death. However, the rules of the 1992 scheme do not provide a fire authority with the discretion to pay a pension to an individual who does not qualify for it.

[Jane Hunt]

The point is that Mr Wilkens was on the 1992 scheme at the time and that, due to his age, he was being tapered over to the 2015 scheme. If he had not been that age, he would not have been tapering at the time and might already have been on the scheme, in which case his partner would immediately have got the pension.

[Damian Hinds]

I am grateful for that clarification, and I will come on to that point in a moment.

My hon. Friend has spoken movingly of the sad circumstances of the case of Ms Melanie Perry, whose partner Mr Wilkens passed away in 2016 and who did not qualify for any survivor pension entitlement. I appreciate that this is an extremely sensitive matter. It is the current legislation underpinning the firefighters’ pension schemes that provides the qualifying criteria for an individual’s pension entitlement and therefore sets the parameters on what payments can be made by an employer out of the pension scheme. On the death of a scheme member, the 1992 firefighters’ pension scheme, of which I understand Mr Wilkens was a member, provides benefits to the surviving spouse or civil partner. These benefits do not extend to unmarried partners. As my hon. Friend will know, that was quite common among pension schemes of that time.

It has been the position of successive Governments not to make retrospective changes to public service pension schemes, and that has not changed. A new pension scheme was introduced for all newly recruited firefighters in April 2006. While the 2006 scheme has a higher retirement age than that of the 1992 scheme, it does provide survivor benefits that extend to unmarried partners. At the time the 2006 scheme was introduced, fire and rescue authorities offered existing 1992 scheme members the option to transition to the 2006 scheme if they wanted to benefit from the modernised scheme design. I understand that a letter was sent to Mr Wilkens from his employing fire and rescue authority in August 2006 providing this option. Ultimately, it appears that Mr Wilkens did not take this option.

[Jane Hunt]

The Minister has mentioned the 2006 changes. At the time of Mr Wilkens’ passing in 2016, he and his partner had been together for 10 years, so that letter would have come at the beginning of their relationship. I think we can therefore forgive them for not taking up that offer at the time.

[Damian Hinds]

I understand my hon. Friend’s point.

In 2010, the coalition Government established the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission, chaired by Lord Hutton of Furness. The commission undertook a comprehensive review of the main public service pension schemes, including the firefighters’ schemes. Following the review, public service pensions underwent a significant period of change with the introduction of new, reformed unfunded pension schemes from April 2015. At that time, full and tapered protections were afforded to those scheme members who were closest to retirement. For firefighters, this included those who were within 14 years of their normal pension age.

In 2018, as my hon. Friend alluded to, these protections were found by the courts to be unlawfully discriminatory in respect of the firefighters’ and the judicial pension schemes on the grounds of age. In effect, the courts found that younger pension scheme members suffered a disadvantage as a result of the Government’s efforts to protect those nearest to retirement from the impact of the reforms. The Government accepted that ruling and that the remedy to remove the discrimination should apply to all public service pension schemes. The Government are now in the process of removing the discriminatory elements. This is a careful and complex process to get right.

The deferred choice underpin, referred to by my hon. Friend, will be introduced by the Government via the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill currently before Parliament and will be enacted by regulations to be laid by the Home Office. It is the Government’s intention that the underpin will give the beneficiaries of deceased members the opportunity to choose from which pension scheme to receive their survivor benefits for any service during the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2022.

From the information provided, it appears that Mr Wilkens’s pension would qualify for that remedy. The impact of the remedy on Mr Wilkens’s survivor benefits will not be known until the remedy is fully implemented by October 2023. At that stage, fire and rescue authorities will start the process of contacting all those entitled to the remedy with details of their options, as the statutory pensions administrator for each area.

In closing, I thank my hon. Friend again for securing this important debate and for the elegant way in which she made her points in the House this evening.

Question put and agreed to.