Crime: Emergency Services Staff

Lord Thomas of Gresford Excerpts

Thursday 1st October 2020 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Speaker (Lord Fowler)]

My Lords, this is an important issue. We are going very slowly on it.

[Lord Thomas of Gresford (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I am the son of a policeman and spent my first five years living in a police station in Llangollen. The November 2018 guidelines for an unlawful act of manslaughter were arrived at after four years of consideration and consultation with 45 bodies, including the council of Her Majesty’s judges, the criminal Bar, the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association, the Ministry of Justice, the Justice Committee, the unions, the Howard League for Penal Reform, leading academics, the royal medical colleges and many others. The guidelines were widely accepted and came into effect less than two years ago. Why is the Ministry of Justice proposing to revisit this issue so soon?

[Baroness Scott of Bybrook (Con)]

My Lords, it is for public confidence. We consulted over the summer and there was a wide agreement that the tariffs should go to two years rather than the 12 months.