Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lammy]

We have committed to providing PCCs with £131.8 million for 2026-27 and £134 million for 2027-28 for their work on sexual violence and domestic abuse. It is really important that we ringfence that funding.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

Building on the question from the hon. Member for Macclesfield (Tim Roca), police and crime commissioners were able to act as a strong independent voice for commissioners. In what has been outlined so far, there is not really a voice for victims in local areas. What will the Secretary of State do to make sure that is remedied?

[Mr Lammy]

We have up to May 2028. It is important that we get the money in and that that money particularly goes to the frontline. When I meet organisations on the ground such as Rape Crisis, they are the voice of women on the frontline, but of course we are looking very closely at how this interaction will work after we no longer have PCCs.

Restriction of Jury Trials

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Monday 8th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Sackman]

I thank my hon. Friend for all her tireless work for victims in her community who have been seriously impacted by some of the crimes that she outlines. My job is to take a look at the whole system and how it is functioning for all victims, for those who are accused and for all participants in the system who are currently being let down. The package of measures that was announced last week includes an increase in sitting powers, and the removal of the defendant’s right to insist on a jury in favour of having cases triaged by the experts—namely, the court itself. With the establishment of a bench division, which Sir Brian advises, cases could be heard at least 20% faster, and we are taking cases such as fraud out of the list so that they can be heard by judges alone. We believe that, taken together, the package’s measures can deliver swifter justice for victims, including those in my hon. Friend’s own community.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

Members on both sides of the House know how important these changes are, and getting them right is absolutely vital. My right hon. Friend the Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay) asked a specific question as to whether the Department has done an impact assessment. Could the Minister clarify whether that impact assessment has been done? If so, will it be immediately published?

Recalled Offenders: Sentencing Limits

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Thursday 15th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

No, it is not. This is about people who have already served their sentence in prison; they are out in the community. If they breach a condition of their licence, they are returned to prison. The hon. Gentleman might as well ask why the Government he supported did not take any of the measures that he mentions. Our Government inherited the mess that his Government left us, and we are taking decisions to address the unconscionable threat of having a prison system that is not able to lock up dangerous people.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

Ministers seem to have been deliberately vague about the number of domestic abuse offenders who will be eligible for release, and the breadth of their offences. Given how big the announcement is, the Government and the Department will have done a lot of work looking at who will be eligible. Will the Minister set out to the House the exact number of domestic abuse offenders who will be eligible for this scheme?

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

I hear the right hon. Gentleman’s question, and I will write to him.

Sentencing Council Guidelines

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Monday 17th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

Certain things are a matter of policy, and they are for the Government and for Parliament. We have had a constructive meeting with the Sentencing Council, a letter is going to the Sentencing Council, and the Sentencing Council will respond. We totally respect the independence of our judiciary.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

Just the other week, the Lord Chancellor made it clear that she does not agree with the direction in which the Sentencing Council is going, and I think we all hope that her meetings with the Sentencing Council will produce results. However, if they do not, will the Minister commit to working across parties? I think there is a real commitment on the Opposition Benches to work with him to bring forward emergency legislation, if that is required.

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

I thank the right hon. Member for the constructive tone of his question. I refer him to the point about our not wanting to get ahead of ourselves. We need to allow the process to go forward, and to respect the Sentencing Council’s role in it; we will address things when we need to address them.

Courts and Tribunals: Sitting Days

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

The shadow Lord Chancellor is having such fun with his audition for leadership that it would be a shame to deprive him of it. My hon. Friend has said that Conservative Members do not understand the mess that they have left behind, but I wonder whether they simply do not want to understand it. Members of a party that was willing to reckon with the mistakes it made in office would at least have started with some humility—and, perhaps, an apology for the mess they left behind.

My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the need for a whole-system approach. One reason why the backlog is scheduled to become worse, no matter how many Crown court sitting days are provided, is the influx of cases into the system, which is actually a good thing, because it means that the police are doing their job and prosecutions are being brought, but even at maximum capacity, demand is far outstripping the disposal of cases. The case mix is more complex, and that requires a system-wide response, which the Government are providing.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

When does the Lord Chancellor expect the additional places to start bearing down on the remand population?

[Shabana Mahmood]

The right hon. Gentleman is right: the remand population is growing, and currently stands at 17,000. That has a big impact on prison capacity, which is why I increased magistrates court sentencing powers a few months ago, why I have increased the number of Crown court sitting days, and why we have a record allocation next year. The demand coming into the system is one of the reasons why bearing down on remand has been particularly challenging, but we continue to work on it with the judiciary; listings are, of course, a matter for the independent judiciary.

Drones: High-security Prisons

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

Anything that works will be built upon—that is part of it. Drone technology has been accelerated through the Ukraine war. We know that we need to work very hard to keep ahead of the felons on this.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

We all appreciate the destructive impact of drugs in our prisons. In Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge, we have the largest cluster of prisons in the United Kingdom, with HMP Featherstone, HMP Oakwood and Brinsford young offender institution. Prison officers do an amazing job trying to tackle this issue, but what specific measures can the Minister bring forward to support their work, to try to ensure that prisoners ultimately get on to the path of rehabilitation and kick the habit of drugs?

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

The right hon. Member is right that prison officers do an outstanding job. I want to take the opportunity to commend the work of prison officers up and down this country. Eighty prisons now have incentivised substance-free living units, providing a supportive environment for prisoners who commit to living drug-free, with regular drug tests and incentives. That project appears to be working.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

My hon. Friend tells it how it is. The Conservative party left our Prison and Probation Service in a mess. Our job, on behalf of the British people, is to clean up that mess. That is what we are doing.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge) (Con)]

HMP Featherstone, HMP Oakwood and HMP Brinsford, also a young offender institution, in my constituency are brilliantly supported by amazing staff, but one of the pressures on them is the number of foreign national offenders in those prisons. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that those foreign national offenders are returned to where they came from?

[Sir Nicholas Dakin]

We are already on track to remove more foreign national offenders than the Conservative party ever did.

Violence Reduction, Policing and Criminal Justice

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Wednesday 15th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Darren Henry (Broxtowe) (Con)]

I would like to start by thanking His Majesty King Charles III for his speech and echoing the comments of many of my hon. Friends and colleagues regarding how special it is to be speaking in the first King’s Speech debate for 70 years. Today’s debate on policing and the criminal justice system is of particular significance, as these are issues I am often contacted about as the Member of Parliament for Broxtowe. The safety of our families and loved ones must be of the highest priority.

It was reassuring to see the Sentencing Bill announced in the King’s Speech. Tougher sentences for the worst offenders will ensure that dangerous individuals are off our streets and not endangering the public. I would like to put on record my personal thanks to all those police officers in the UK who serve our country, especially those within Nottinghamshire, and also to thank all those who work for the police in supporting roles. I will single out one individual in particular: neighbourhood policing inspector, Inspector Mike Ebbins, who I regularly meet to discuss the specific crimes affecting people in Broxtowe. It is essential that we are keeping our communities safe. This will also be achieved through the Criminal Justice Bill, which seeks to empower our police forces and justice system to prevent crimes such as digitally enabled crime.

I am glad to see a focus on the welfare of victims. Keeping victims at the centre of our criminal justice system and ensuring that as much support as possible is in place for them is essential. I welcome these new measures, especially the proposals in the Victims and Prisoners Bill to monitor how criminal justice bodies comply with the victims code. The Bill also sets out plans to improve support for victims, including a statutory duty for partner agencies to collaborate. The Bill will have a hugely positive impact on those most needing our support.

I would like to put on record my deep disappointment that a mental health Bill was left out of the King’s Speech. Since first being elected, I have been campaigning for mental health reform and the increased support that is desperately needed across the UK. I was encouraged recently when the Government published the suicide prevention strategy, but it does not go far enough. I stood in this Chamber in 2020 and debated the huge merits of the Mental Health Act White Paper. Having a person-centred approach to in-patient facilities, and removing autism and learning disabilities from being categorised in the Act as mental health disorders, are changes that are missing today, and that is of course a detriment to many throughout the UK. I implore the Government to start prioritising mental health reform as soon as possible.

The King’s Speech also discussed the importance of looking after veterans. As a veteran myself, I am passionate that the UK should become the best country in the world for a veteran to live. The Government have made huge strides in veteran care in recent years, and we have the first ever Minister for Veterans’ Affairs attending Cabinet in order to prioritise that care. We have had many successes in improving services for veterans since establishing the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, such as the dedicated referral pathways for mental health, physical health and homelessness established by Operation Courage, Operation Restore and Operation Fortitude.

I recently had the pleasure of opening the first ever military service leavers pathway into policing, which I am proud to champion. The course is the first of its kind, and I look forward to seeing service leavers take up their place in Nottinghamshire police.

[Sir Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

My hon. Friend makes a very interesting point on the value that veterans can contribute not just to public sector employers such as the police but to so many private sector employers. Military service is a driver in raising skill levels. Does he have any thoughts on how these skills could be better used in future?

[Darren Henry]

I completely agree with my right hon. Friend about the value of veterans’ transferable skills, teambuilding and sense of duty. Those things are important and can be transferred to many forms of employment, particularly policing.

The military-to-policing scheme gives veterans a direct pathway into the police via the police constable degree apprenticeship, ensuring that skills gained in the military are transferred to a new career following a shortened training scheme.

It would be remiss of me not to mention my disappointment at seeing incredibly important areas, such as mental health, not addressed in the King’s Speech, as they should have been. However, I welcome the proposed Bills and believe that many will have a directly positive impact on my constituents in Broxtowe.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Thursday 18th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

I have worked closely with my hon. Friend on some of the community projects that she has championed in her constituency. If her constituents are watching this morning, I can tell them that they have no more doughty champion. She stops me at every possible occasion to raise these issues. She and I have worked together to push through the bureaucracy and get these innovative community projects up and running, so of course I welcome them.

[Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

4. What steps she is taking to promote tourism on inland waterways.

[The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Hugh Robertson)]

The Government, through VisitEngland, promote tourism on inland waterways in a number of ways. Inland waterways have benefited from Government funding through the £25 million rural growth fund and a £1 billion contribution to the Canal and River Trust.

[Gavin Williamson]

South Staffordshire has some of the finest canals in England, with the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal and the Shropshire Union canal. What more can my right hon. Friend do to encourage not only more domestic tourists, but more international tourists to discover the delights of our canals, which would bring much-needed business not just to rural communities, but to our towns and cities?

[Hugh Robertson]

I have a very simple and, I hope, positive answer for my hon. Friend. VisitBritain will actively market all of Britain’s canals and waterways on its public-facing website. I hope that that will achieve the effect that he desires.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gavin Williamson Excerpts

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I have met personally with representatives of Big Society Capital and other organisations in the social finance sector. I believe that this is an enormous opportunity for the sector, and I want it to be involved in the work that we are doing. Combining the skills of the voluntary sector with the social finance sector could play a powerful part in what we are trying to achieve.

[Gavin Williamson (South Staffordshire) (Con)]

9. What powers there are to confiscate unauthorised property found in prisoners’ possession.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Jeremy Wright)]

Prison governors or directors have the power under prison rules to confiscate any unauthorised item found in the possession of a prisoner or elsewhere within a prison. In addition, following the excellent stewardship of my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew), the Prisons (Property) Act 2013, which received Royal Assent on 28 February, will, when commenced, provide prison governors and directors with a statutory power to destroy or otherwise dispose of unauthorised property confiscated from a prisoner.

[Gavin Williamson]

Many of my constituents in South Staffordshire believe that many prisoners have far too many home comforts in their cells, and that there is far too much contraband in the prison system. What action has my hon. Friend taken to make sure that we run a spartan regime, and not a holiday camp?

[Jeremy Wright]

My hon. Friend can reassure his constituents that prisoners will no longer watch Sky subscription television channels, and they will no longer watch 18-rated DVDs. As my hon. Friend knows, we are looking comprehensively at the incentives and earned privileges scheme in prisons to make sure that prisoners earn any incentives and privileges that they receive.