End-to-end Rape Review

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend is quite right to mention the victims Bill, which is an important element in this debate. Of course, with her background, she is a strong advocate for victims in this area. She is absolutely right to focus on confidence. We want to make sure that victims have the confidence to go to the police, to stay engaged with the process and to give evidence. That is why all these issues, whether data from phones or Section 28, are all part of making sure that victims stay engaged with the process. On funding, as I mentioned there will be a consultation about statutory footing for ISVAs and I will refer her to that in due course.

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I make a plea. There are a number of 70-plus year-old men who, following controversial sex offence trials, languish in prison, ill and with disabilities. They are no risk to society and, during the pandemic, their CCRC case reviews are, legally, access and procedurally problematic. Why not let them home under monitored conditions and free space for people who are a real danger to society? John McGuinn of Darwen in Lancashire is one of them. He is a celebrated case and I appeal on his behalf and that of others.

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, I am not sure it is right or proper for me to comment on individual cases from the Dispatch Box. There is a proper procedure for people who seek probation or to have sentences served outside a formal prison, and I think it would be unwise and probably improper of me to say any more on the subject than that.