All 1 Debates between Dan Carden and Andrew Ranger

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Debate between Dan Carden and Andrew Ranger
Tuesday 10th September 2024

(3 months, 2 weeks ago)

Commons Chamber
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Dan Carden Portrait Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton) (Lab)
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1. What steps her Department is taking to increase prison capacity.

Andrew Ranger Portrait Andrew Ranger (Wrexham) (Lab)
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16. What steps her Department is taking to increase prison capacity.

Shabana Mahmood Portrait The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Shabana Mahmood)
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Today is the day that those on the Opposition Benches always knew was coming. The legacy of the previous Government was a prison system on the brink of collapse, which left us with no choice. Today, around 1,700 offenders have had to be released a few weeks or months early by changing their automatic release point from 50% to 40% of their sentence. Had we not done so, we faced courts unable to hold trials, police unable to make arrests and a total breakdown of law and order. This is not the long-term solution—there is more that we must do—but it was the necessary first step that we had to take following the disgraceful dereliction of duty of the previous Government.