Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Conservative MP for West Suffolk
Early Release of Prisoners (Restriction) Bill: Second Reading – Nick Timothy.
I welcome the Justice Secretary to his place. This is the Government’s fifth early release policy in just six weeks, since the Prime Minister took office. At every stage we were told that Ministers had no choice but to include dangerous criminals, because the alternative would be the “collapse” of the “entire system”. Now the plan is to stop one group of dangerous criminals leaving...
I am confused by that intervention from the hon. Lady, who was the Minister in charge of this Bill. The argument I am making is consistent with the position she brought to the House in January, only to back down when it became controversial. As I was saying, this could lead to intelligence that should, for good reasons, remain secret being published, which undermines the way the intelligence...
I am not sure I follow the hon. Member’s question. If he wants to repeat it more clearly, I will happily listen.
The point is that this is a new duty, which is backed by criminal sanction, and that is why it is different from the status quo. As I was saying, the Justice Secretary is a Privy Counsellor. He is the Deputy Prime Minister. He was once the Foreign Secretary—the man to whom MI6 and GCHQ were accountable. He knows that these sources of intelligence from allies are essential. They support our...
What the hon. Lady says is not entirely relevant to this proposition. This is about the provision of information to particular investigations and inquiries, and we do not know—indeed, we cannot know—the identities of the people who lead those investigations and inquiries. That is one of the reasons why this is such a step into the dark.
We are sent here to scrutinise legislation. That is what we are doing. We have talked to people in the intelligence agencies, the police and others who are very concerned about this. The concerns that I am expressing were shared by Ministers themselves, which is why the amendment we are proposing today reflects the amendment that the Government themselves brought to the House in January.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners his Department expects to be released in the first tranche of early release under the Sentencing Act 2026 progression model by establishment.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims were originally contacted advising them that their perpetrator may be released from prison early as a result of the Sentencing Act 2026, but whose perpetrator will now no longer be eligible as a result of the latest offence exclusions.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been recorded as changing their religion, broken down by prison, in each of the last three years.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in the last three years, how many assaults on (a) prison officers and (b) prisoners, were committed by prisoners on Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason the Criminal Justice Board has not met since December 2025.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to proceed with the proposed restrictions to jury trials in the Courts and Tribunals Bill.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimation his Department has made of the total floor area available across those prisons and young offenders' institutions that have been closed since 2010, broken down by individual establishment and divided into a) total area b) indoor area c) cell area.
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, (a) for what reason submissions to the Call for Evidence by the Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred/Islamophobia Definition were deleted, (b) whether this was in breach of MHCLG records and information management policy, and (c) if she will provide a list of all organisations which submitted a response to the Call...
