Oral Answers to Questions

Steve McCabe Excerpts

Tuesday 17th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

If we repealed the Human Rights Act, which is one of the matters being looked at, we would just go back to having the convention applied directly by Strasbourg. The issue attracts a wide range of views, which is why we have set up a commission to consider them—[Interruption.] We have indeed set up the commission. It is composed of serious people who have expressed a very wide range of views in the past on the subject. They will strive to reach a consensus and it will be useful to get a properly informed and expert assessment of what the various options might result in. I am sure that the package of measures recommended by my hon. and learned Friend is one of the matters they will be considering in the course of their discussions.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

4. When he plans to bring forward proposals on the future of sentencing.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Crispin Blunt)]

In December 2010, the Government set out proposals for more effective punishment, rehabilitation and sentencing of offenders in the “Breaking the Cycle” Green Paper. We are finalising our response to the views expressed during the consultation and will publish it shortly. That will be followed by the publication of the legislation required to implement our proposals.

[Steve McCabe]

I am grateful for that answer. Is it the Government’s view that someone who breaks into a person’s house and threatens violence should automatically receive a prison sentence, irrespective of whether it is a first offence?

[Mr Blunt]

It is the Government’s view that justice should be done, and that is best done by judges taking into consideration the circumstances of every individual case. There will be circumstances in which Parliament has made clear its views in legislation. As a former Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary, the hon. Gentleman will well understand that. He will also well understand the potential for miscarriages of justice if this place chooses so to tie the hands of judges that they are not able to exercise justice in the individual cases that come before them.