Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lucy Rigby and Lindsay Hoyle

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor General (Lucy Rigby)]

Mr Speaker, I will start by taking this opportunity to wish you, your team and Members across the House a very merry Christmas.

Every single victim of knife crime is one too many, and this Christmas there will be some constituents, including my own, facing the heartbreaking reality of a loved one who is no longer with them due to knife crime. That is why, as part of our plan for change, the Government are 100% committed to tackling knife crime.

[Mr Speaker]

I welcome the Solicitor General to the Front Bench.

[David Taylor]

Merry Christmas, Mr Speaker.

I have had reports of people carrying machetes in Livingstone Walk, an area in Grovehill, Hemel Hempstead, with the Dacorum local crime unit investigating one incident of alleged robbery at knifepoint. Knife crime is not our only issue in Hemel; we have the highest rate of antisocial behaviour in the county, and we are the most dangerous town in Hertfordshire. That is a direct result of Conservative Governments taking 20,000 police off our streets nationwide, removing 60p out of every pound from local authority budgets and failing to act on antisocial behaviour. What further steps is the Solicitor General taking to ensure that violent thugs are not allowed to run riot and are brought to justice?

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[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Mr Speaker, I wish you and your team a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I thank you for all your kindness to everyone in this House in the past year. I wish the Solicitor General all the best in her new role.

I share hon. Members’ concerns about knife crime, which is truly horrific. The impact it has on families is great. I have a specific question, so I am happy to receive a written answer. How many under-18s across the United Kingdom in the past 12 months have been: (a) cautioned; (b) charged; and (c) convicted of knife crime offences?

[Mr Speaker]

Good luck with that one!

[The Solicitor General]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for his question. He will appreciate that I do not have those statistics to hand, but I am more than happy to write to him.

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[The Solicitor General]

I can give that assurance. The hon. Gentleman calls this kind of crime low level. I know from experiences in my constituency that these issues can affect daily life and really blight communities, so yes he has my assurance.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Ben Maguire (North Cornwall) (LD)]

I wish you and your team, Mr Speaker, and everyone in the House a very merry Christmas, and I welcome the Solicitor General to her place. However, I am afraid that it will not be a merry Christmas for all my constituents. Rural crime in North Cornwall is on the rise, from rural theft to increased drug trafficking. County lines drug gangs are grooming and recruiting children as young as nine to traffic drugs, while elderly and vulnerable constituents have been cuckooed in their own homes by the gangs. What steps is the Solicitor General taking to work with the police to increase the number of prosecutions of the ringleaders of these ruthless gangs that blight our communities and expose our young people to violence and crime?

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[The Solicitor General]

I am very sorry to hear of the incident in the right hon. Member’s constituency; that is indeed appalling. It is vital for this type of conduct to be taken seriously, and policing is key to that. We need more police officers and police community support officers, which is why, as part of our plan for change, we have promised to put 13,000 more police officers and PCSOs back on the beat with a named officer for every neighbourhood. We also need to improve the experiences of victims within our criminal justice system, and that includes better communication between victims and the CPS.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Justice Committee.

[Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith and Chiswick) (Lab)]

Merry Christmas, Mr Speaker. I welcome my hon. Friend to the Front Bench, and congratulate the former Solicitor General, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Sarah Sackman), on her promotion to Minister of State in the Ministry of Justice. It is sometimes difficult to keep up with this Government’s pace.

Given that the Crown court backlog stands at over 73,000 and trials are being listed for 2027, victims are awaiting justice for an unacceptably long time, with the consequence that many no longer feel able to support the process. How is the Solicitor General working, through the CPS, to ensure that victims facing a wait of between two and three years for trials stay the course?

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[The Solicitor General]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. We are strengthening the law and the criminal justice system to improve prosecutions for violence against women and girls, and to better support victims.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister—welcome.

[Helen Grant (Maidstone and Malling) (Con)]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I wish you and the team a very happy Christmas indeed. I congratulate the Solicitor General on her position and welcome her to her place. I hope to work constructively and effectively with her on this challenging and very important part of Government.

As the Solicitor General knows, rape victims need action now, urgently, given that many rape cases take more than two years to come to trial. There has been much talk from Ministers about opening specialist fast-track rape courts, but disappointingly there has been very little detail to date. How will the Government achieve that fast-tracking if they do not use all potential court sitting days, as requested by the Lady Chief Justice but refused by the Lord Chancellor?