Speeches by Richards.

“I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s intervention. Over the course of this speech, I will set out what the Government are doing more generally to increase rehabilitation and crack down on reoffending. The hon. Gentleman states that there is a suggestion that this Bill is somehow soft on crime. I say gently to him that by the…”

“I beg to move, That this House disagrees with Lords amendment 7.”

“It is a small number of cases, but they take an inordinate amount of time. That is the whole point of what Sir Brian Leveson has put forward, and in due course, when this legislation comes before the House and the impact assessments are put before it, the hon. Gentleman will be able to see that for himself. Others have…”

“As ever, I am happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this or many of the other issues he raises in the House. Let us be very clear that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Pam Cox) has set out, this is a modest change to jury trials—something that has happened throughout our history. The Opposition were remi…”

“We absolutely have to drag the criminal justice system into the 21st century by modernising its structures, but the context in which we operate clearly has an effect on that programme. The fact that we have inherited an unprecedented backlog in our criminal court system affects the urgency and radicalism of that reform…”

“It will be quite tough to follow that, but here we go. This has been a very useful debate. Every single contribution, including those from Conservative colleagues, has commented on the crisis in our courts that we inherited from the Conservatives after 14 years. We have heard some suggestions; the gist of the suggestio…”

“We treat all cases the same. The hon. Gentleman can make that point in a debate on that subject at another time. Let me end where I began. The crisis that this Government inherited has no doubt given rise to a heightened need to deliver a more modern, resilient and flexible model of criminal justice: one that protects …”

“I will give way on that point, and then I will make progress.”

“We have already made it clear during this Justice Question Time that we will not be giving a running commentary on the numbers. This Government are taking action to deal with this problem in our criminal justice system, which, by the way, the Conservatives did nothing about over their 14 years.”

“We will not take any lessons about violence against women and girls from the Conservatives. Prosecutions for rape went down under the last Conservative Government, but we are taking action to protect women and girls. I will repeat this point: the scenario we faced last summer was that when those who committed the worst…”

“I speak regularly with my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Linsey Farnsworth), who was an experienced Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor. When I speak to her, she tells me that the worst scenario for prosecutors who are trying to keep our streets safe is prisons being full, so that offenders cannot be kept be…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her important question. That sounds like a really important initiative. A big swathe of this Government’s agenda is trying to tackle reoffending, which means improving rehabilitative services within our prisons. I look forward to meeting this service with my hon. Friend in the new year.”

“The Government regularly meet trade unions and the Prison Officers Association. I will take this opportunity to put on record again our thanks to prison officers, who do an extraordinarily difficult job in difficult circumstances, and we will be updating the House on that issue in due course.”

“I had the great pleasure of hearing the right hon. Member’s contributions on Report and in Committee on the Sentencing Bill. I remind him, as I did then, that we inherited a prison system on the brink of collapse. The worst way to fail victims would be to have no prison places, and to be unable to keep the worst offend…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that important case, which is very much on the radar of the Ministry of Justice. I will raise the issue personally with the Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending in the other place. I am personally committed to this issue, and I will visit Lowdham …”

“We have extended the period of time that certain prisoners on standard determinate sentences are eligible for moves into open conditions. We know that open conditions can lead to better outcomes for offenders and confront reoffending. That is because open prisons give offenders better opportunities to find work and re-…”

“The Deputy Prime Minister has set out a five-point plan to deal with the long-standing issue of releases in error in our criminal justice system. There were 800 releases in error when the Conservatives were in government, and never once did they come to this House and give an update. We will release much more of that d…”

“I am constantly aghast at the chutzpah of the Conservatives, who left the prison system in utter crisis after 14 years. Prison officer numbers reduced under them, and prison places hardly rose at all. We are stabilising the prison system and investing in security measures to ensure that we have a prison system that is …”

“Prison security is a top priority. We constantly update our countermeasures to keep pace with criminals who try to undermine them. This year, the Government are investing over £40 million in physical security. That includes £10 million on anti-drone measures. Prisons also have X-ray body scanners, airport-style enhance…”

“The hon. and learned Member will know that this is a devolved matter. I met the Justice Ministers from all the devolved nations last week, and we continue to have that dialogue to ensure that justice is served across all four countries.”