Electronic Monitoring of Offenders

Debate between Nick Timothy and Catherine McKinnell

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) (Con)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the electronic monitoring of offenders.

[The Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending (Catherine McKinnell)]

The Government inherited a justice system pushed to breaking point by the previous Government. When Labour came to power, we had fewer than 100 places left in our prisons, with incredibly serious problems with electronic monitoring. We have taken swift action to improve performance, and are now delivering the biggest expansion of tagging in British history, backed by £100 million of investment.

As part of our reforms, there is a presumption—[Interruption.]

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[Nick Timothy]

You would not believe, Mr Speaker, listening to the Minister that the numbers of prison places and prison officers are actually down. It all sounds like it is going very well according to her version of events.

Labour told us that to keep the public safe from the dangerous criminals it is releasing early, the Justice Secretary would implement the toughest tagging regime in British history, and that there would be a new presumption that offenders will be electronically tagged and monitored when they leave prison. But the Metropolitan police told Sky this weekend that it will not act on all breaches of tag conditions by bailed offenders, blaming the pressure created by Labour’s early release scheme.

Just in London, there have been 100 tag breaches a day by released prisoners since the first early release scheme started, with two to three released prisoners now being rearrested every week. The Met commissioner said that

“95%-plus of the tagging breaches that we arrest are simply being bailed back into the community on the same condition”.

He says, “there is zero sanction”. One sergeant said:

“There are not enough cops”

to handle Labour’s early release of thousands of prisoners.

The Justice Secretary, when he stops hiding in his Department and sending junior Ministers to answer for him, needs to be straight with the House and the public. Four days after his early release scheme started, he told the BBC that he did not know—that it was impossible to know—how many prisoners had been tagged. He wrote to me yesterday admitting that he still does not know, and that is 26 days later. The Times reports that most prisoners will not be tagged as they are released from prison, and we know that more than 5,000 offenders went unmonitored in the first half of this year because they were not fitted with tags.

This is a mess. So chaotic is Labour’s early release scheme that prisoners are being given tents instead of housing upon release. As a matter of policy, these prisoners will be in probable breach of their licence and tagging conditions, which require them to have an approved address, all because the Probation Service is overwhelmed. We know that two thirds of prisoners who are sleeping rough go on to reoffend within the first year.

Ministers keep telling us that the full data on tagging and reoffending cannot be published until the regulation publication dates. I ask again: will Ministers publish full data on how many released prisoners have been tagged? Will they publish comprehensive data on reoffending by prisoners let out through Labour’s early release scheme, and will the Justice Secretary apologise to the House for telling the public that they would be kept safe?

[Catherine McKinnell]

While the hon. Member raises some important points, I stress again that we are working night and day to fix the broken system that we inherited. We are working across agencies. We are working incredibly hard with the police, the Probation Service and all those who work in the criminal justice system who want to keep the public safe and ensure that victims get the service they need, too.

I caution the hon. Gentleman, because he appears to be conflating a number of issues. He will be aware that it is usual practice, which has been in place under successive Governments, including his own, that prisoners are tagged at their place of accommodation on release, and that was always the plan for 1 October. That said, we know that this creates a gap between leaving prison and having the tag fitted, which is why to address it we have conducted a successful pilot to fit tags at prison receptions. That is currently live in six prisons, and we are working at pace to roll this out to further prisoners who will have a tag upon leaving. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Dr Mullan) chunters from a sedentary position to ask about the police. He is talking about local Metropolitan police policy in relation to breaches of court bail where it is the responsible agency. It is important not to conflate the release of prisoners and the tagging policy, which we are working at pace to improve from the situation we inherited, with the other demands on the police, which we are working closely with them to resolve. We inherited a failing tagging system with record backlogs. We are investing £100 million in electronic monitoring, tagging offenders before release and, importantly, strengthening victim protections with a new alert system.

To the MPs who share this Government’s and the Prime Minister’s ambition that no one should be street homeless, I urge them to support us in these endeavours and to ensure that their local authorities are working with us to support prisoners on release, to ensure they are tagged and to ensure that victims and the public are protected. That is our key priority, and we can work together across this House to achieve that.

I visit prisons and meet prison officers and governors every week who are working incredibly hard to keep the public safe and to transform the lives of individuals in our prison system to ensure that when they leave prison, they leave in a better state than when they arrived. We are working to reduce reoffending and to support the Probation Service in reintegrating people into society, and to ensure in the meantime that people are tagged and victims and the public are kept safe. We are working incredibly hard getting on with the job of fixing the mess we inherited and rebuilding our justice system that was left so broken, and I urge hon. Members across the House to support us in their local area in that work.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Timothy and Catherine McKinnell

Tuesday 15th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Catherine McKinnell]

I absolutely recognise the hon. Gentleman’s concerns. We have a review ongoing into these issues within prisons, led by Amber Rudd, and we will continue to ensure that we have the deterrence, to stop drugs getting in, and that the right actions are taken when they do.

[Nick Timothy]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In oral questions just now, the Justice Secretary stood there and said again that he wanted to work collaboratively, and he invited the House to scrutinise the Government’s proposals on juries, but those are just words. This summer, as the Government constantly changed policy on early release, I wrote to him and the Prime Minister three times in July and twice in August, and received no reply until I got a short, dismissive reply last Thursday, by which point—[Interruption.] What are your guidelines? By that point, the policy had changed several times. Just now, the Secretary of State dismissed my question sarcastically, saying that he was not the correspondence secretary. That is not only disrespectful to the House; it is disrespectful to his correspondence secretary and may explain the delays—

Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Debate between Nick Timothy and Catherine McKinnell

Report stage & 3rd reading
Tuesday 18th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Catherine McKinnell]

indicated dissent.

[Nick Timothy]

The Minister gave me a frown but she can intervene and admit the success of English schools in those rankings if she wishes.

It is why, when Michaela was once again selected—[Interruption.] Would the Minister like to intervene? No, apparently not. It is why, when Michaela was once again the best-ranked school in the country for progress, the Secretary of State could not bring herself even to congratulate Katherine Birbalsingh when I invited her to do so from these Benches. It is why the Education Secretary’s special adviser briefed the newspapers that Ms Birbalsingh is a liar, and why he briefed the newspapers against Amanda Spielman, former head of Ofsted, attacking her very personally as a “failure” and a Conservative.

As Margaret Thatcher, not just a former Prime Minister but a former Education Secretary, once said:

“If they attack you personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”

And this is the truth: the Education Secretary does not have a single political argument for this disgraceful act of policy vandalism, but she is determined to ignore those who know better than her and push on. And the people who lose out, I am afraid, will be the children, from ordinary working families the length and breadth of the country, denied the best we can give them, unaware that a better and brighter future has been stolen from them thanks to nothing more than vindictive left-wing dogma.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Timothy and Catherine McKinnell

Monday 10th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) (Con)]

5. When she expects the interim report on the curriculum and assessment review to be published.

[The Minister for School Standards (Catherine McKinnell)]

Under the Tories, young people felt underprepared for their futures, and employers agreed that too many were leaving school lacking the skills needed in the modern workplace and ill-equipped for an ever-changing world. Through the independent curriculum and assessment review, Labour will bring forward a cutting-edge curriculum that ensures that all our children leave school ready for work and for life. The interim report will be published in the spring.

[Nick Timothy]

Parents and pupils will think that Ministers are on another planet when they hear such answers. SATs in years 2 and 6 mean that primary schools can be held accountable, and that we can measure progress data through secondary education, but the National Education Union says that SATs “do not benefit learning” and wants the Government to abolish them. Will the Minister rule out abolishing SATs in primary schools—yes or no?

[Catherine McKinnell]

Assessment clearly has an important role to play in supporting achievement and development within schools. We will consider how the reformed curriculum and assessment will affect schools. We recognise the importance of supporting schools through any changes that come forward in the interim and final report.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nick Timothy and Catherine McKinnell

Monday 27th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Catherine McKinnell]

I know that my hon. Friend is a strong advocate for children with special educational needs and disabilities in her constituency, and I am happy to meet her to discuss the issue.

[Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) (Con)]

The Children’s Commissioner says that the Government are

“legislating against the things we know work in schools”.

Katharine Birbalsingh says the schools Bill is “catastrophic”. Sir Dan Moynihan asks:

“Why are we doing this?”.

Why does the Education Secretary think that she knows more about education than the Children’s Commissioner, the head of the best school in the country, and the head of the best multi-academy trust?

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Debate between Nick Timothy and Catherine McKinnell

Thursday 24th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Catherine McKinnell]

The visit to that school in my hon. Friend’s constituency was wonderful. The school is one of many examples of the provision of inclusive mainstream education. We need such provision to be in schools in every community and available to every child. She rightly recognises the challenges of co-ordinating between health services and education provision, and the vital importance of those systems working together to achieve outcomes for children. I will certainly take away her specific suggestion and share it with my colleagues in the Department for Health and Social Care.

[Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) (Con)]

Parents in my constituency are not interested in what the Minister thinks about the Conservative party. They may recall that EHCPs were introduced under the coalition Government. They want us to work together to make things better. We all know that a problem with EHCPs has led to a tripling of costs for county councils. In the Westminster Hall debate that the Minister took part in with me recently, she was much more constructive than she is being today, and I would like to believe that that is the approach that she wants to take to these issues. Does she have a timescale for the reform of EHCPs?

[Catherine McKinnell]

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s comments, and I will always work cross-party with colleagues to achieve the best for all children in this country, but levelling the blame for the current situation at a Government only five months old cannot be accepted; the inheritance that we have taken on cannot be underestimated. We will continue to work on putting right what has been failing for the past 14 years, and the Department for Education is moving at pace on work to that end. We will make specific suggestions for legislative changes, and for any other necessary systemic changes, in due course.

Universities: Freedom of Speech

Debate between Nick Timothy and Catherine McKinnell

Thursday 10th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Catherine McKinnell]

Yes, I give the hon. Gentleman that reassurance. It is for that reason that we are pausing and making sure that we get this legislation right. Freedom of speech and academic freedom are too important to approach in anything other than a considered, pragmatic and consensual way.

[Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) (Con)]

I appreciate the Minister’s constructive tone. She says that she does not want this to be a culture war issue. When the pause was announced by the Secretary of State, special advisers in her Department described the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act to the media as a Tory “hate speech charter”. Will the Minister disown those comments?

[Catherine McKinnell]

I have been very clear that we need to take a constructive approach and to listen to all views on this issue. We need to protect freedom of speech and academic expression, and that includes robust debate where necessary and challenging views that we may not want to hear. We are listening and we are determined to get this right.