Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Sentencing: Dangerous Offenders

Tuesday 26 March 2024 · 4 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Simon Jupp questioned the Minister about increasing sentences for dangerous offenders, emphasizing the need for severe custodial sentences for rapists.
  • The Minister responded by noting that the average custodial sentence for adult rape has increased by over 40% since 2010.
  • Toby Perkins praised the Minister for extending sentences for serious offenders and inquired about the expected response to the recent consultation on sentencing for murder cases.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Simon Jupp
Justice & Courts
Context

The question follows government measures to increase sentences for serious crimes, particularly focusing on the average sentence length and release requirements.

Question

What steps he is taking to increase sentences for dangerous offenders. I welcome the measures that my right hon. and learned Friend has outlined, as will my East Devon constituents. Rapists deserve the most severe possible custodial sentences. Will he update the House on how sentence lengths have been increased for that utterly vile crime since 2010?

Answer from Alex Chalk

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that rape is an appalling crime. In 2010, the average custodial sentence for adult rape was six and a half years, and prison governors were required to release offenders at the halfway mark. Today, the average sentence is over 40% longer, and offenders serving more than four years must serve two thirds of that sentence behind bars. As I say, we are going further still.

Answered
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Q2 Simon Jupp
Justice & Courts
Context

The question addresses the discrepancy between government rhetoric on sentence lengths and the reality of prison overcrowding, highlighting that offenders are being released due to lack of facilities.

Question

For all the positive words from the Secretary of State, the reality in our prisons is that people are being sent out, and the prison estate has not kept pace with the rhetoric that we hear from the Government. The Government are constantly sending criminals on to our streets because they do not have the prison facilities to house them. Is not the reality that we need fewer fine words and more action from the Government to keep our streets safe?

Answer from Alex Chalk

That is not a fair characterisation. The capacity in our estate is much greater than when we inherited it—that is point one. Point two is that we have kick-started the largest prison expansion since the Victorian era: £4 billion has been allocated, and we have opened His Majesty's Prison Fosse Way and HMP Five Wells. HMP Millsike will open next year; we have planning permission for Gartree and Grendon Springhill, and we also have more spaces—rapid deployment cells and so on—coming on at Liverpool, Birmingham and Norwich.

Answered
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Q3 Toby Perkins Lab Chesterfield
Justice & Courts
Context

The question is about the Government's response to a recent sentencing consultation, particularly on murder cases involving knives.

Question

I commend my right hon. and learned Friend for building on the work that he and I did together to ensure that the most dangerous and serious offenders spend longer behind bars. The consultation on sentencing in cases of murder concluded a few weeks ago. When can we reasonably expect a response on that sensitive and important issue?

Answer from Alex Chalk

My right hon. and learned Friend is absolutely right to say that it is a sensitive issue. As he knows from practice, those who commit the offence of murder outside, using a knife that is brought to the scene, can expect a starting point of 25 years. However, as the Gould and Devey families have made so powerfully clear, where the crime takes place inside the home, there are very difficult sentencing decisions for judges. The consultation has ended, and I pay tribute to the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Orpington (Gareth Bacon), who has spoken to a number of people about it, as indeed have I. We will respond in the coming weeks, but this matter requires careful thought.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The answer does not provide a specific timeline or firm commitment on when the response will be published.

How: Careful Thought

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Q4 Robert Buckland Con
Justice & Courts
Context

The question discusses the case of Barnaby Webber, whose killer was found guilty of manslaughter rather than murder due to paranoid schizophrenia. The question calls for a review of homicide laws.

Question

Barnaby Webber from Taunton was described by his family as an “extraordinary ordinary person”. His killer was found guilty of manslaughter, rather than murder, on the basis of being subject to paranoid schizophrenia. Barnaby's mother, Emma Webber, says it is “abhorrent” that murder charges were not pursued against her son's killer. Will the Secretary of State consider re-categorising homicide laws to introduce first-degree and second-degree murder?

Answer from Alex Chalk

There is nothing I could say from this Dispatch Box that would put right the horror that the poor families of Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Austin suffered in those appalling attacks from Valdo Calocane. The law of homicide has been considered greatly—in fact, as a Back Bencher, I led a debate on the issue of first-degree and second-degree murder. It is of course something that we keep under careful consideration; there is complexity to it, but it is certainly a matter that we will consider.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The answer does not provide a clear timeline or commitment for implementing changes in homicide law.

How: Careful Consideration

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