Debate on the Address

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 4:34 pm on 12 November 2007.

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Photo of Lord Dholakia Lord Dholakia Deputy Leader, House of Lords, Spokesperson in the Lords (Communities), Department for Communities and Local Government 4:34, 12 November 2007

My Lords, we welcome the gracious Speech which promised to,

"take forward policies to respond to the rising aspirations of the people of the United Kingdom; to ensure security for all; and to entrust more power to Parliament and the people".

But that must be measured against two main criteria—the governance of Britain as announced by the Prime Minister in July, and its translation into the Government's legislative programme as announced in the gracious Speech. We have the director-general of the Security Service telling us that we face the worst threat in peace time in its 98-year history. Terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people—he estimates a figure of at least 2,000. We are promised a Counter-Terrorism Bill, yet the discussion of the past few days has centred on the detention period and the Home Secretary is still not clear about what is appropriate.

The questions on which we need answers are basically simple. How have the past measures worked? What is our long-term strategy? Why are the faith communities so uncomfortable with the Government's stance? What are the short-term goals and long-term objectives? We have the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, yet there is a confused message about numbers and legality of entrants. We need a value-driven British identity as a core goal that takes into account the implication of globalisation, devolution and asylum and immigration issues.

Let me use as an illustration my conversation two weeks ago with the Government of India. Poland has such scarcity of its own citizens that it is now inviting India to send its professionals to Poland. That says something. Look what we did to overseas doctors on the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme here. The Government wanted to throw them out. Even the Appeal Court judges said last week that the Department of Health treatment of doctors was not lawful. How much faith can we place on the Government's statements that their legislation is compatible with the Human Rights Act 1998 when courts have repeatedly overruled or decided otherwise? Last week, I attended a reception where John Griffith-Jones of KPMG said:

"I worry about recent developments in the UK. Multiculturalism is essential to the future of the world and especially to London. The ability of our city to prosper is wholly dependent upon us having a great mutual respect for each others' backgrounds, cultures and practices".

The question of identity is complex, but it need not be so. Defining Britishness is not the full answer. Very recently, a British national daily newspaper asked its readers:

"What does it mean to be British?".

I read the response in some of the emails that followed, and one from a chap in Switzerland caught my eye. It said that,

"being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, and then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry ...(to) watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign".

It is right in a democracy that there is a sensible debate about such issues. We should question what happens when an individual or group identity impinges on other people's lives and liberties, but do we really believe that the wearing of the veil practised by a small proportion of women will have any bearing on the process of community cohesion or the advancement of an integrated society?

I am also disappointed and somewhat angered that a coroners Bill, which was promised by the Minister, was not included. Families are experiencing serious delay in the holding of inquests, the narrow remit and problems with public funding. Urgent reforms are needed. Surely the deaths of vulnerable people in custody have clearly demonstrated that we need an extension of the remit of the inquest system. We need to change the structure to create a national coroners service to improve service delivery and ensure high standards and accountability.

We need to improve the support and information available to bereaved people. We need the introduction of a system for monitoring inquest verdicts and statutory obligations on public bodies to respond to the findings of an inquest. We should promise non-means-tested legal aid for bereaved people and we need specific action to be taken to counter lengthy delays. Yet I see no evidence of this important measure in the Queen's Speech.

Another regrettable omission from the Government's legislative programme is legislation to reform the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. Four years ago the Government accepted the case for reform on the lines recommended in the Home Office review group report entitled, Breaking the Circle. So far no such legislation has seen the light of day. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act provides that after specified "rehabilitation periods" ex-offenders do not have to declare spent convictions when applying for jobs, except for certain sensitive occupations. However, the rehabilitation periods are often lengthy and many genuinely reformed ex-offenders can never benefit from them: for example, if the sentence was a fine, it takes five years to become spent; three months' imprisonment takes seven years; a nine-month sentence takes 10 years; and sentences of more than two and a half years can never be spent. I offer a challenge: if the Government are so serious about rehabilitation, when do we expect this legislation?

The Breaking the Circle report proposed new, shorter "buffer periods" before convictions become spent. This reform would greatly reduce the scope for unfair discrimination against former offenders. It would also increase public safety by reducing reoffending because offenders who get and keep a job are between one-third and one-half less likely to reoffend than those who remain unemployed.

On 11 October, in answer to my Oral Question, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, assured me that the Government remain sympathetic to reform of the Act. He said that they would consider whether the Breaking the Circle proposals need amendment in the light of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. I hope that the Government can conclude their consideration of this matter speedily and introduce the necessary legislation at the earliest possible date. Failing that, I shall certainly think in terms of promoting a Private Member's Bill on this matter.

The Queen's Speech refers to the continued passage through Parliament of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill. l welcome a number of measures in the Bill, including those to reduce the length of time which prisoners recalled to prison for less serious breaches of supervision spend in custody. Also welcome is the removal of the power to pass suspended sentences for offences which are triable only summarily. This change should help to reduce the negative effect on the prison population of activated suspended sentences passed on offenders who could perfectly well receive a community sentence instead.

However, these measures will have only a very limited impact on our overstretched and overcrowded prison system. Far more needs to be done to reduce the unnecessary use of prisons if we are to give the Prison Service a reasonable chance to rehabilitate a manageable number of prisoners. The Minister will no doubt remind us that the Government are committed to building more prisons, but unless steps are taken to reduce the use of prisons, the courts will simply fill new prisons with ever more prisoners, providing no relief for overcrowded jails. It is like trying to run down an escalator which is moving ever more rapidly upwards.

Earlier this year Nacro, the crime prevention charity, of which I have the honour to be president, put forward a 10-point programme to reduce the prison population. I understand that the Government are reviewing and considering the proposals, one of which is that the Government should do more to tackle the revolving door of short-term prisoners. At any one time 8,000 prisoners are serving sentences of less than 12 months. These sentences do little to protect the public because containment periods are far too short. The time spent in prison is too brief for a serious rehabilitation attempt but long enough for prisoners to lose their homes and jobs, which makes them even more likely to reoffend. More than 70 per cent of these short-term prisoners are reconvicted within two years of leaving prison. Nacro has proposed that the Government should commission a resettlement service run by voluntary organisations for short-term prisoners to reduce the number who keep going back to prison.

The Government should also legislate to require sentencing guidelines to take into account the capacity of the prison system. This was a recommendation made by the noble Lord, Lord Carter of Coles, in his report on the correctional services published during the period when David Blunkett was Home Secretary. At the time, Mr Blunkett accepted the noble Lord's recommendations, but they have never seen the light of day in the form of legislation.

Legislation should also be introduced to prevent the courts imprisoning juvenile offenders unless they have first tried an intensive supervision and surveillance programme, except for those young people who commit grave crimes. There is a strong case for extending a similar provision to adults. What is the point of sending non-dangerous offenders of any age to jail before trying an intensive alternative, one without the undesirable side-effects of prison?

I conclude by spelling out what my noble friend Lord McNally said on the first day of the debate:

"We will not hesitate to give our support when national security demands it, but neither will we shirk from opposing measures which are authoritarian and undermine hard-won liberties".—[Hansard, 6/11/07; cols. 14-15.]

I joined the Liberal Party 50 years ago. These are the values I cherished then, and they are the values I cherish now. These are the values on which compromise is not possible.