Results 1-20 of 13,056 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Jack Straw

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: The point is that the situation would arise only when a view was taken that there could not be an article 2-compliant inquest with a jury, because of the existence of information that could not go before a jury for reasons that we have all discussed, such as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. There might be other circumstances in which the issue of seeking an inquiry under the...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: There will have to be an inquest. If the request is turned down and there is, therefore, no suspension, the inquest will continue in any event. There is a separate issue about whether that inquest would then be article 2-compliant, which sort of begs the original question. Of course, if the Lord Chief Justice says, "I'm not giving you a judge," paragraph 1, as amended already, means that...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: I am happy to put that on the record. The Lord Chief Justice could, and would, go on exercising that veto. In the real world, the way it works is that he would say, "Lord Chancellor, I do not accept that this is a proper purpose for a High Court judge, so I won't nominate anybody." If he says that, that is the end of the matter; I need to make that absolutely clear. I plead with the hon. and...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: We all agree that the Lord Chief Justice, when deciding whether to appoint a particular judge, any other judge or no judge, will want to take into account whether he is satisfied that the normal inquest should be suspended. How else could he make a decision? My plea to the House is to bear in mind that there is no substantive difference between the two sides of the Chamber on the issue. We...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: I have said this about 15 times, but the Lord Chief Justice would not appoint that judge or any judge unless he were satisfied about the case for suspending the inquest. Why would he? He would have an absolute right to a veto under the amendment already agreed to in the other place.

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: This issue is really important, because Lords amendment 1B would amend paragraph 3(1) of schedule 1 so that it stated: "Subject to sub-paragraph (2), a senior coroner must suspend an investigation under this Part of this Act into a person's death if— (b) a senior judge has been appointed under that Act"— the Inquiries Act 2005— "as chairman of the inquiry." The senior judge...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: As the hon. Gentleman is pleading—improbably—the consistency of the Liberal Democrat party, can he explain how last week in the other place, Baroness Miller managed to get through a comprehensive set of proposals that would have allowed intercept evidence to be adduced in coroners' inquests? That was far more significant than the amendment proposed by my hon. Friend the Member...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: Well, you raised it.

Coroners and Justice Bill: Schedule 1 — Duty or power to suspend or resume investigations (12 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: I will attempt to be as brief as I can, Mr. Speaker, because other hon. Members want to take part not only in this debate but in the following one. I am grateful to the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) for what he said about trying to adopt a constructive approach—I am at risk of complimenting him—and I accept that he has tried to do so, too. Most hon....

Points of Order (12 Nov 2009) has video

Jack Straw: Further to that point of order, Mr. Speaker. Happily, I am not responsible for this particular delay, but as I am in my place on the Front Bench, I promise that I will get further details from the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart) and will follow his point up with the appropriate Treasury Minister.

Point of Order (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: rose—

Point of Order (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: With great respect to the hon. and learned Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve), it is part of the arrangements for topical questions that a statement can be made on a matter of departmental business. After all, the question that is put to the Secretary of State at the beginning of topical questions asks whether he will make a statement about his departmental business. I wished to show...

Point of Order (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: rose—

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Drug Misuse (Prisons) (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: Most offenders have a drug problem when they come into prison. Ensuring that drugs are not available within prison is therefore a major priority for all staff and the system as a whole. All prisoners are subject to mandatory drug testing in prison, and the results indicate a 68 per cent. decrease in drug use in prison since 1996-97. We still have to take further action. Measures recommended...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Drug Misuse (Prisons) (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: There are substantial penalties. One measure that I introduced at the beginning of 1999, when I was Home Secretary, significantly tightened up the checking and vetting of visitors to prisons, who are one of the major sources of the drugs that are smuggled in, and the penalties for such visitors if they transgressed the rules, as well as imposing clear penalties on prisoners who receive drugs...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Drug Misuse (Prisons) (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: I established a review under Mr. David Blakey, the former chief inspector of constabulary and former chief constable of West Mercia, which was published at the beginning of last year. I commend that review to the hon. Gentleman. As long as there are some drugs in prison that should not be there, none of us should be satisfied about the environment in prison. This is not an issue that I, the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Drug Misuse (Prisons) (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: Whether they are mandatory depends on the prison, the availability of staff and the categorisation of the prisons. I promise the hon. Gentleman that I do not rule out mandatory searching in all circumstances.

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Drug Misuse (Prisons) (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: Generalisation like that belies the fact that it is very difficult to get drugs into prison and that staff do a huge amount of work to ensure that drugs are not there. It is not possible to answer the point that my hon. Friend puts to me, which is essentially a negative, but what I can say is that, as I have told the House, the results of mandatory drug tests show that there has been a 68 per...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Drug Misuse (Prisons) (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: On the latter point, there has been absolutely no reduction in prison officer numbers. Staffing in prisons has increased commensurately with the increase in prison numbers, and spending has risen slightly above the increase in prison numbers. As for the searching of visitors, the rules are very clear. I have made it absolutely clear to the prison service that I expect those rules, and tough...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Drug Misuse (Prisons) (10 Nov 2009)

Jack Straw: I cannot rule that out as a possibility, but the truth is that the overwhelming number of people who seek drugs and abuse them in prison are addicted to drugs outside prison. An alarming proportion of offenders—apart from, interestingly, sex offenders and the high-end offenders who are drug dealers rather than drug users—are people who abuse drugs. One of the many reasons why we...