Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Elliot Colburn

Tuesday 10th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

No, and as I announced just a few moments ago we are introducing more scanners so that we detect, pick up and stop the flow of contraband into prison, whether drugs, mobile phones or weapons. We also have a step change in the approach to drug treatment. For example, we have fewer heroin addicts dumped on methadone indefinitely, and more drug recovery wings and more incentivised wings for substance-free living. That is the way to sustainably get offenders off drugs, and it also links in with all the work we are doing to get offenders into work.

[Elliot Colburn (Carshalton and Wallington) (Con)]

T3. Carshalton and Wallington residents are deeply concerned about burglaries. I welcome the Metropolitan police’s commitment to attend all burglaries, but will my right hon. Friend outline what his Department is doing to ensure that those who are arrested receive appropriate sentences?

[Dominic Raab]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I can tell him that domestic burglary has actually fallen by half since 2010, and the Metropolitan police’s operational tenacity is one element of that. On sentencing, the maximum sentence is 14 years. That is obviously an individual decision for judges, but I can also tell him that since 2010 the average sentence has increased by nine months, from 22.6 months to 31.6 months. There has been a step change and an increase in sentences for burglary, as well as the measures we are taking on police and law enforcement.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Elliot Colburn

Tuesday 24th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

First, we have seen a step change increase in convictions by 67%—two thirds—over the last year. I think the hon. Lady is wrong, if I may say so, to use the statistic that she used. In fact, the conviction rate has increased from 68% in July to September 2021 to around 71% in the last quarter. Through Operation Soteria, section 28 and changes that are being made to disclosure, we will drive a step change in support for victims with the quadrupling of victims funding, which will help to support victims through the process and secure more convictions.

[Elliot Colburn (Carshalton and Wallington) (Con)]

T8. Carshalton and Wallington residents are rightly proud of Ray and Vi Donovan for their work to promote the rights of victims to go through restorative justice, which they went through after the murder of their son Chris. Can my right hon. Friend assure me, in my position as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on restorative justice, that access to restorative justice practices and services will be enshrined in the victims Bill and that funding will be outlined to go along with that?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Elliot Colburn

Tuesday 20th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right. Deforestation is a key plank of our agenda for COP26, and I have raised it in Indonesia, where it is obviously a big issue, and in parts of Asia. I also raised it recently in a virtual meeting I had with Foreign Minister Araújo of Brazil, although he is no longer in place. The key will be galvanising international support to make sure that the measures those countries take are not economically damaging to them, while at the same time being environmentally sustainable for the world. We have a key plank of work that is focused on that area, and I can reassure the hon. Lady that it is a major component of our approach to COP26.

[Elliot Colburn (Carshalton and Wallington) (Con) [V]]

  As chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Tamils, I thank the FCDO for its work in securing the new resolution on accountability in Sri Lanka at the recent UN Human Rights Council sessions. However, from speaking to Tamils in Carshalton and Wallington and across the UK, there is obviously still more to do, so could the Minister outline what steps the UK is taking to implement the UN high commissioner’s recommendations on applying sanctions and travel embargos and filing cases against alleged war crimes under universal jurisdiction?