Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve McCabe and Crispin Blunt

Tuesday 31st January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Blunt]

Yes, but the payment-by-results scheme is not limited to private sector prisons. We are piloting it in two public sector prisons as well. The National Offender Management Service is to contribute £1.4 million to eight voluntary sector organisations to help with mentoring, and is also involved in a Europe-funded project that is assessing the relative benefits of mentoring by peers and non-peers.

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

Will the Minister consider the effectiveness of training when it comes to security issues? Will he look into how on earth Bilal Zaheer Ahmad, who is serving 12 years in prison and was described as

“a viper in our midst”

by the judge who jailed him under the Terrorism Act 2000, managed to send a six-page letter from his Belmarsh cell that advised potential terrorists on the best way to outwit our police and security services? Will this latest lapse be investigated by the Justice Secretary?

[Mr Blunt]

Of course that will be investigated, as, indeed, is every security breach.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve McCabe and Crispin Blunt

Tuesday 17th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[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.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve McCabe and Crispin Blunt

Tuesday 15th June 2010 Commons Chamber

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

Does the Secretary of State agree that the recent spectacle of Roy Whiting exploiting British taxpayers to demand a reduction in his sentence is an abuse of justice and an insult to the memory of Sarah Payne?

[Mr Blunt]

The important principle to establish here is judicial independence. I think we should therefore respect the decisions that judges come to on these matters.