Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Ministry of Justice

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Davies Excerpts
Tuesday 25th February 2020

(4 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lucy Frazer Portrait Lucy Frazer
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My hon. Friend makes an important point about crime in our prisons, which takes several forms. A few months ago, we announced expenditure of £100 million on security within our prisons, which will enable us to stop the use of illicit phones, prevent drugs from getting into our prisons, and increase our intelligence and surveillance to stop criminal activity.

Philip Davies Portrait Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)
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Is it not about time the Government changed the law so that anybody who is guilty of assaulting a prison officer loses their automatic right to early release, thereby acting as a huge deterrent for this appalling activity and giving prison officers the support they deserve?

Lucy Frazer Portrait Lucy Frazer
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My hon. Friend has made a number of points on the criminal justice system over a number of years that are all worth thinking about. He is absolutely right about protecting our prison officers. We have, as he will be aware, increased the sentence for assaulting prison staff.