Draft Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Home Detention Curfew) Order 2023

Ellie Reeves Excerpts

Monday 20th March 2023 General Committees

[Ellie Reeves (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)]

Home detention curfew is a robust tool that can aid in the supervised resettlement of offenders into society. Our concern is that the Government’s proposed extension is not being made in the interests of reintegration, but that it is instead an emergency measure and a rushed, knee-jerk reaction to prison overcrowding—yet another sticking plaster policy from a Government who lurch from one crisis to another.

The Government’s failure to get to grips with our prison system meant that in December they needed to enact the contingency Operation Safeguard, yet the scale of the problem is so deep that the contingency plan now requires a contingency of its own. That is why we are here today to debate this measure. If resettlement and rehabilitation were truly the Government’s focus, we would not see prisoners locked in their cells for up to 23 hours a day, prison violence at record highs and engagement with rehabilitation programmes at record lows, or prison officers leaving in droves. Those are the problems after 13 years of the Conservatives; and the scale of the problems runs deeper still. Our probation service is a shadow of its former self after 13 years of Government mismanagement, cuts and organisational change.

[Danny Kruger (Devizes) (Con)]

I recognise the essential importance of rehabilitation. Does the hon. Lady agree that the opportunity to allow prisoners to spend longer on HDC as they approach the end of their sentence will aid their rehabilitation by enabling them to take part in community support outside prison?

[Ellie Reeves]

If HDC is done properly, it can work well, but my concern is that this measure is being rushed through, without a properly thought-out process. I will talk a bit about the probation service and the challenges that it is already facing. This measure comes on top of that and will increase its workload further, which is why I have real concerns about how this will work in practice.

The probation service now faces severe staff shortages and unmanageable workloads, and morale is at rock bottom. All of that has led to a failure to monitor dangerous criminals, putting the public at risk. Meanwhile, we hear time and again of prisoners who have been released to sleep rough on the streets or drift back into drug abuse, making them more likely to commit further crimes. And what did we hear from the Government last week? They are forcing 5% of headquarters staff to move back to the frontline.

It is another sticking-plaster policy in response to 13 years of failure, and today’s proposals will likely add a further burden to an already overstretched probation service. They mean that officers will need to complete more HDC assessments, testing the suitability of the proposed release address and examining any previous behaviours by the prisoner on licence or bail. However, the chief inspector of probation recently detailed the current poor standard of risk assessments, with two thirds of those inspected being insufficient. If risk assessments are done quickly, there is a real danger that they will not be completed to the required standard and so the public may be at risk from those released.

We need assurances from the Minister today about what will be done to ensure that the probation service has the capacity to take on the sudden spike in cases from implementing this plan. How will the Government ensure that assessments are not rushed but are properly carried out? Can the Minister confirm that all those released early will have the same checks as they otherwise would have had, including home visits, checks on the proposed release address, and domestic abuse call-outs?

In conclusion, real harm is being done by the chaos in our criminal justice system.

[Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) (Con)]

The home detention scheme was introduced under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and came into force in January 1999. The period has been extended twice—first to 90 days in October 2002 and then to the current 135 days in April 2003. The hon. Lady’s party was in power on those three occasions: the introduction and the two subsequent extensions. Does she not think that the arguments that the current Government are making for this measure—logical arguments, for evidence-based decisions—are probably the same as those that were made when her party was last in power?

[Ellie Reeves]

I am grateful for those points, but I have outlined in my speech some of the huge capacity issues that we see in the probation service when it comes to properly assessing and managing risk. That is why the Opposition are seeking assurances that the Minister recognises these, and that increasing the amount of time that someone can spend on home detention curfew will not make the public less safe. That is what we are concerned about. There is a capacity issue and it needs to be addressed. We need those reassurances.

Rushed attempts to clear people out of prison are not a replacement for the proper management of rehabilitation. I hope that the Minister will respond to these concerns and outline how the Government will ensure that prisoners are properly risk assessed before release, and how the public will be kept safe.