Criminal Justice Reform

Lord Beith Excerpts

Tuesday 8th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

Foreign national offenders have the right to appeal their removal, but this Government are already tightening how the right to family life in the ECHR is applied to our Immigration Rules so that it is no longer abused, as part of our immigration White Paper. The Government’s view is that we do not have to withdraw from the ECHR to deliver meaningful change. On the question of trial by jury, we will be discussing the Courts and Tribunals Bill before long, I am sure.

[Lord Beith (LD)]

My Lords, we have more of our population in prison than most other countries. Will that situation not continue and get even worse, and promote even more crises, until the Government explain to the public that enormous resources are spent building and staffing prisons and that those resources are not being used in the way most likely to reduce reoffending?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I need to be straightforward with the noble Lord. Prison numbers are not going to come down quickly; in fact, they are going to rise. That is why we are building new prisons. A number of noble Lords have asked about reducing reoffending. The Government have done a great deal about reducing reoffending. Indeed, HMPPS had a great deal of support from the previous Government, financially, to build up our capacity for housing and for drug treatment, and my noble friend Lord Timpson did a great deal on the employment front. But I should say that what will not reduce reoffending, in any circumstances, is overcrowded prisons with overstretched staff operating in an environment that is extremely disruptive. If we want people not to reoffend, the way to achieve it is to have highly motivated staff working in a reasonable way, with the support and the facilities that are available, in the way that my noble friend Lord Timpson sought to achieve.