Minister defends government’s record on prisons and sentencing after warning from security officials
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended the government’s record on prisons and sentencing in England and Wales after criticism from senior security officials, but said “we can’t build our way out of” prison capacity pressures in the short term.
Earlier today the Times newspaper reported that the heads of the Metropolitan police, MI5 and the National Crime Agency have told the government that plans to release prisoners early could be of “net detriment to public safety.”
Speaking on Times Radio the minister said “The risk to public safety I’d highlight is the prospect of our prison system collapsing, which is what we face and why we’ve had to act.”
He continued by saying:
What we were handed by the previous government in terms of the state of our prison system was nothing short of criminal neglect. They added just 500 places to the prison estate in their time in office, while at the same time, sentence lengths rose, and as a result, we got the prison population rising by approximately 3,000 people each year.
And we’re heading back to zero capacity. If we run out of capacity, courts will be forced to suspend trials, the police will have to halt arrests, crimes will go unpunished.
We’ll essentially be in a breakdown of law and order, so while we’re trying to add prison places as fast as we can as a Government – and we’ve already created 2,400 since taking office, allocated an additional £4.7bn to prison building, putting us on track to hit 14,000 places by 2031, we can’t build our way out of this particular crisis we’ve inherited because demand for places will outstrip supply. So sentencing reform is necessary.
In a letter to the Times, six police chiefs have warned that without “serious investment” they will be unable to deliver on the prime minister’s flagship pledges. The warning comes ahead of the government spending review, and they cautioned that cuts will lead to the “retrenchment we saw under austerity”.
Key events
Rayner: planning changes are ‘pragmatism’ but ‘we won’t be compromising on nature’
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has said that the Labour government “won’t be compromising on nature” with its proposed planning changes, after criticism from wildlife charities and from the co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales. [See 11.36 BST]
Speaking to broadcasters, PA Media quotes Rayner saying:
We’re simplifying the process for houses if there’s under ten houses built, and between ten and 49. We’re going to simplify that process. We’re going to put more expert planners on that process as well, but we won’t be compromising on nature.
Rayner said the planning situation was very different with these types of small and medium sites, as opposed to large developments, adding “So this is pragmatism, but we’ll be able to protect nature at the same time. The Cabinet are all with me. Build, build, build, and we’ve been making that a priority of this government.”
Deputy first minister Kate Forbes has demanded “decisive action” from the UK government, saying Labour ministers need to “counter the damaging economic impacts of Brexit”, after data showed a slight downturn in Scotland’s GDP.
The MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch said “in the face of ongoing global challenges, dynamic steps are being taken to grow and transform Scotland’s economy,” but, she said, the Scottish government’s “limited” powers mean “decisive action” is needed from Westminster to “counter the damaging economic impacts of Brexit and tackle the economic uncertainty currently being felt by business, workers and families”.
PA Media reports Forbes repeated the SNP’s call for reversing the “damaging decision to increase employers’ national insurance contributions”.
Lib Dems: ‘government has failed to step up’ on justice system in England and Wales
The Liberal Democrats have added to criticism of the government over the lack of capacity in the prison system in England and Wales, and the early release of prisoners that has been a consequence.
Justice spokesperson Josh Babarinde was also responding to a letter in the Times from six police chiefs, in which they wrote that increased funding was necessary in order for the government to meet its pledges on crime. Babarinde said:
Across the country, people will be worried sick by what we’ve heard over the last 24 hours, wondering how real-terms policing cuts and early release schemes will impact them and their families.
Years of mismanagement and neglect under the Conservatives ran our policing and criminal justice systems into the ground – but this is proof that the Labour government has failed to step up and tackle the scale of the problem in response.
Our policing and criminal justice systems need to be working hand-in-hand, not in silos. It’s high time that the government shows some real leadership by bringing together police chiefs and criminal justice chiefs ahead of the spending review to ensure that both systems have the resources they need to keep our communities safe.
Green co-leader Ramsay: proposed changes to planning regulations are ‘outrageous’
Co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales, Adrian Ramsay, has said that Labour’s plans to relax some planning regulations are “outrageous”.
Posting to social media, Ramsay said: “This is outrageous. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries on Earth. The government should be increasing nature protections, not undermining them.
“The government needs to be tougher with developers on building affordable housing and not sitting on land where they already have planned permission.”
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook had earlier claimed during his media round that the plans to relax environmental regulations on building projects offered a “win-win for both nature and the economy”.
The government is consulting on plans to make it harder to stop building projects, including by reviewing “biodiversity net gain requirements” (BNG) which force developers to compensate for damages done to nature. Pennycook told listeners of the Radio 4 Today programme:
We think there is a case for reviewing whether very small sites, so sites with nine homes or less, should be exempt from BNG.
But when it comes to what we call medium-sized sites, so sites which are delivering between nine and 50 homes, what we actually want to do is to simplify the BNG rules to make it easier for smaller housebuilders to deliver habitats for wildlife on site.
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch has posted to social media about attending a Q&A session in Huddersfield, where she claimed “the resounding message was that this disastrous Labour government is doing real damage to our economy”.
Badenoch went on to say: “I was clear that the Conservatives are the only party that offer economic competence.”
The Liberal Democrat spokesperson on the enivronment, Tim Farron, has also commented on Helena Horton’s earlier report that the fund for nature-friendly farming is to be slashed in the coming spending review.
In a statement, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale said:
The Government is treating rural communities with gobsmacking contempt. If this comes to pass ministers would be putting yet another nail in the coffin of farming in this country.
Many farmers are barely making ends meet, working for half the minimum wage, yet they still tirelessly maintain our countryside and it is their stewardship that allows us all to enjoy its beauty. With these cuts, those same farmers will simply not be able to protect nature in this way any more.
The government’s utter failure to understand rural communities risks decimating them. At the spending review we cannot see farmers come under siege once more, and these cuts cannot come to pass.
The head of the London’s police has opposed Sadiq Khan’s call to decriminalise some cannabis possession.
Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley said drug use is a “big issue” for communities, driving antisocial behaviour and acquisitive crime, and that a change in the law on cannabis is “not something we’re calling for”.
His comments follow a report by the independent London Drugs Commission (LDC) which called for the decriminalisation of small amounts of natural cannabis.
PA Media reports Rowley told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “At the moment we see drugs being at the centre of a lot of crime. We see a lot of communities complaining about public drug use, and that’s a big issue in terms of antisocial behaviour.
“We’re chasing around people who are using drugs in public, which is a concern to communities. We see drug users becoming addicted and that driving acquisitive crime. It’s a big part in our current operations.”
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook also distanced himself from Khan’s comments, telling Times Radio “The mayor is obviously entitled to his view on the matter but the government position on cannabis classification remains unchanged.
“Our focus is continuing to work with partners across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use, ensure more people receive timely treatment and support, and make our communities and streets safer.”
Anas Sarwar challenges Nigel Farage to debate in Hamilton amid ‘sectarianism’ row
Libby Brooks
Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has challenged Nigel Farage to debate him face to face as the row between the two man over Reform UK’s racist byelection advert grows more ferocious.
Sarwar denounced Farage as “a pathetic, poisonous, little man” after the Reform UK leader accused Sarwar of “introducing sectarianism into Scottish politics” yesterday.
Farage was pushing back on the widespread condemnation of a Facebook video targeting voters in the crunch Holyrood byelection in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse which claims that Sarwar said in a 2022 speech that “he will prioritise the Pakistani community” – which it has no evidence to back up.
Sarwar told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland: “What I suggest to Nigel Farage is he should ask his chauffeur to put Hamilton into Google Maps. Come up here. I will challenge him anytime, anyplace in Hamilton, any town hall – and he can challenge me on his views. I will challenge him on his views.”
Asked whether he sought to prioritise Pakistanis, Sarwar replied: “It is utterly ridiculous to say that. As someone who has been in Scottish politics for 15 years, and served all communities of all faiths and backgrounds, to hear that is utterly ridiculous.”
It is worth offering a bit of context about Farage’s sectarianism claim too – it is an especially inflammatory term to use given the history of the constituency which is an area of deeply embedded sectarian division, with enclaves of strident support for Rangers football club, the Orange Order, of which the Conservative candidate Richard Nelson is a member, and the union. Businesses in Larkhall, including the sandwich chain Subway, infamously had to remove the colour green from their livery because of its association with Catholic-founded Celtic football club.
As I reported from the constituency yesterday, while that century-old fissure has healed considerably in recent years, some locals are “scared” of how Reform are creating new divisions.
Steve Barclay, the Conservative MP for North East Cambridgeshire and former Environment, Food and Rural Affairs secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government, has reacted to the news that the fund for nature-friendly farming to expected to be slashed in the UK spending review, as reported by my colleague Helena Horton earlier.
Posting to social media, he claimed “Post-Brexit farming schemes were the most successful that Defra had ever ran, and were world leading in showing that food production and nature restoration could go hand in hand. Labour’s decisions here will damage our food security and environment.”
Lib Dems: Conservatives should be ‘ashamed of their failures’ over prepayment energy meters
Thousands of energy customers who had prepayment energy meters (PPMs) force-fitted are to receive compensation or have their debts written off, Ofgem has said.
The regulator announced that eight companies will hand out compensation and support after a review into consumers struggling with energy bills who were forced to have pay-as-you-go meters installed.
Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, Wera Hobhouse, who has campaigned on the issue, said:
It is high-time that the victims of this scandal are recognised and properly compensated after energy companies rode roughshod over them in this disgraceful way. Those affected have already waited too long for justice. Pay outs now need to be made in time for the winter months, when we know energy costs are higher.
The Conservative party neglected these victims and ignored Liberal Democrat attempts to prevent more people suffering forced installations. Today they should feel ashamed of their failures.
And to think that some may still not have all their debt written off is simply not right. These companies need to write off the debts they forced upon the people who bore the brunt of this scandal.
PA Media reports suppliers will pay £5.6m in compensation – using the guidelines set out by Ofgem – to 40,000 customers who had an involuntary PPM installed during the assessment period. Suppliers will also write off a further £13m of debt from customers.
Green party of England and Wales MP for North Herefordshire Ellie Chowns has said Ofwat’s fine for Thames Water is “long overdue”.
In a post to social media, Chowns, who is running to be co-leader of the party, said:
This morning’s £123 million fine of Thames Water is long overdue. But the truth is, as long as private companies profit while polluting our waterways, this will keep happening. Water must be taken back into public hands – for people, not shareholders.
Nominations for the party leadership open on 2 June, with voting taking place during August and results announced on 2 September. Chowns is running on a joint ticket with current co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Carla Denyer announced she was stepping down from her co-leadership role earlier this month.
