Road Safety

Debate between Pam Cox and Linsey Farnsworth

Thursday 5th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pam Cox (Colchester) (Lab)]

I welcome today’s debate on road safety, which is a subject of deep concern in Colchester and across Essex. In our county, we have seen a year-on-year increase in deaths on our roads, rising to 58 in 2025—too many of those have been young lives. In Colchester, we are marking a terrible anniversary at present: the moment that four young people lost their lives in a single crash. In April last year, an 18-year-old was killed on the A12. In the previous September, a 13-year-old was struck and fatally injured on Mersea Road. The deaths of these young people must be a call to action.

Residents regularly raise concerns about the A12 and the A120, where frequent incidents and congestion contribute to these horrors. I would like to highlight the need for better road infrastructure and traffic management on those stretches. As an Essex MP, I am committed to working with Essex Highways and Essex police to develop measures set out in the road safety strategy, particularly the mandating of safety technologies in new vehicles, taking tougher action against drink and drug driving and improving driver testing and learning periods, especially for young drivers.

[Linsey Farnsworth]

Dave, a driving instructor in Amber Valley, contacts me regularly about road safety—he is a passionate advocate. However, he is concerned about the consultation in the road safety strategy on a three-month or six-month minimum learning period. Does my hon. Friend agree with Dave that structured training and lesson time is just as important as a minimum time period?

[Pam Cox]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. I am sure the Minister has heard that point and will respond to it.

Far too many people die on our roads—we really must act to save lives. I will close by asking the Minister what new funding will be available to help us in that key endeavour.

Sentencing Bill

Debate between Pam Cox and Linsey Farnsworth

Report stage
Wednesday 29th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Linsey Farnsworth (Amber Valley) (Lab)]

My new clause 36 seeks to implement a key recommendation of David Gauke’s independent sentencing review, on which the measures in this Bill are based. The new clause proposes that release at one third of a sentence should be conditional on positive actions and purposeful activity, such as attending education classes, engaging in voluntary work and participating in drug rehabilitation.

My amendment seeks to address the prison capacity crisis by embedding an emphasis on rehabilitation into the earned progression model from its very first stage. Incentivising purposeful activity will do two things. First, it will actively reward better behaviour within prison, leading to fewer instances of additional adjudication days being added.

[Pam Cox (Colchester) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that offering clear incentives for earned release is a key way of offering certain offenders clear chances to change, thereby reducing the risk of reoffending and enhancing public protection?

[Linsey Farnsworth]

I absolutely agree. As my hon. Friend will have seen—she sits alongside me on the Justice Committee—there is clear evidence to back that up. Secondly, starting the process of rehabilitation through positive requirements earlier will reduce reoffending rates on release, thereby cutting crime and consequently easing pressure on prison capacity in the longer term.

To develop my first point, inquiries by the Justice Select Committee have found worryingly high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, self-harm, and violence against inmates and staff. Evidence submitted by Collective Voice shows that prisoners are more likely to develop substance misuse issues while in custody if they lack meaningful activity. The Prisoners’ Education Trust has described how participating in education has rehabilitative benefits, helping people in prison to occupy their time positively and learn new skills.

His Majesty’s inspectorate of prisons found that the prisons best able to tackle substance abuse combined clear boundaries, high expectations and, importantly, meaningful incentives. Prisons such as HMP Oakwood and HMP Rye Hill, which offer rich, purposeful activity, see significantly lower rates of drug use and better behaviour. By incentivising engagement in well-resourced, purposeful activity, new clause 36 would reduce the likelihood of prisoners turning to substances or violence. In turn, fewer prisoners would incur additional days on their sentence, which would ease overcrowding and the strain on prison staff.