David Johnston
Main Page: David Johnston (Conservative - Wantage)Department Debates - View all David Johnston's debates with the Cabinet Office
(2 years ago)
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Dominic Raab
I can reassure my hon. Friend on that. The changes that we made in December should give him some reassurance. There is no risk-free approach here. What we do is try to create safeguards to mitigate as best we can while maintaining a free society. I also note that, under successive Conservative Governments, the number of absconds has fallen, from 296 in 2009-10 to 101 in 2020-21—a third of the level. We have the security right, but we will continue to make sure that we reinforce it.
David Johnston (Wantage) (Con)
I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement today. Does he agree that, in those most serious of cases, the public do not expect politicians to throw up their hands and say, “Well, it was a decision for the Parole Board”? They expect them, as the ones accountable for keeping them safe, to step in and do so because it is their No.1 job.
Dominic Raab
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. On that decision making, the frustration is that if we delegate from this place or from accountable Ministers, particularly when we are talking about judgment calls, not things that require a purely technocratic or scientific approach—psychiatry and psychology can only take us so far—the public feel that we have abdicated our responsibility. We are taking back control to provide a safeguard in those high-risk cases, and that is exactly what the public already expect of us.