Oral Answers to Questions

Desmond Swayne Excerpts

Tuesday 21st November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Here is a man who will go short: I call Sir Desmond Swayne.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

10. Whether he is taking steps to increase levels of public confidence in non-custodial sentences.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Alex Chalk)]

To earn public confidence, non-custodial sentences must self-evidently be punitive, so that the British people can see that offenders are being punished for their crimes. They must also be enforceable, so that judges and magistrates can be confident that those who step out of line risk being brought back before the court and sentenced to immediate custody. That is why we are doubling the number of the latest GPS tags available to the court, so that offenders can be strictly monitored, and we have increased funding for the probation service by £155 million a year.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

It is essential that every advantage be had from the latest monitoring technology, isn’t it?

[Alex Chalk]

Pithy and perfect—my right hon. Friend is absolutely right. Under the old technology, all that the so-called radio frequency tags could tell the probation service was whether that individual had left the premises to which he had been bailed or curfewed. The modern GPS tags are far more effective, because they can indicate where that person has gone, keeping them under a tight rein. We have additional tags, including alcohol monitoring tags to allow the courts and probation services also to monitor alcohol where that is the root cause of the offending.