Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

I shall come to the challenges posed by IPP sentencing. I accept that criticisms could be made about cases of people who should perhaps have been released and have not been. The hon. Gentleman has made a fair point. However, I do not think that the Government should risk the possibility that their policy will create countless additional victims, pain and misery that could be prevented if they took seriously their responsibility to keep the public safe. It should also be noted that the threshold for the handing down of a mandatory life sentence for the second offence is higher than that required for an indeterminate sentence. As a result, there is a risk that some of the most dangerous and serious criminals will not even be covered by the ““two strikes”” proposals. All that points to the need for some kind of indeterminate sentence that judges could use only in the most serious circumstances. The 2008 reforms helped to deal with some of the problems that were inherent in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, and I pay tribute, as did the Justice Secretary, to the work of my right hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw) for the work that he did at that time. If the Government think that further reform is required, they can take many positive lessons from Northern Ireland's successful introduction of indeterminate custodial sentences. I know that the Justice Secretary has corresponded with Northern Ireland colleagues, and has had discussions with my right hon. Friends the Members for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Paul Goggins) and for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Mr Blunkett) on this very matter. He has said nothing, however, about why he believes the Northern Ireland experience does not contain lessons for England and Wales; instead, he simply dismissed that possibility out of hand. I am on record as saying that I want IPP sentences to be reformed so that they work as originally envisaged. I am happy to work on a cross-party basis to achieve that, so that IPP sentences protect the public from the most serious violent reoffenders. What I am not willing to do is play hard and fast with public safety. I have also previously said that we need to look at the backlog of prisoners who have served their minimum tariff but are still in prison. That involves addressing the shortage of suitable courses and programmes to support those on indeterminate sentences. This problem has been exacerbated by the cut of about 25% in the Justice budget. One thing I will not support, however, is any watering down of due process before release of those who have served their minimum tariff. Instead, this Government have decided that indeterminate sentences should be discarded lock, stock and barrel, and there is now no mention at all of how they will deal with the backlog. It is accepted that the Government's plans will involve an even greater role for the already over-stretched Parole Board on release decisions and increased amounts of licensing, and I foresee serious problems ahead. There will be more call on the already over-stretched programmes and courses to support the rehabilitation of serious and violent offenders. The Justice Secretary must be clear with the House if, as a result of his bungled last-minute sentencing proposals, the extra resources required by the Parole Board and the prison service in order for them to be effective will not be forthcoming. If that is the case, he must explain how he expects the service to deliver more with the same budget. All this is happening at the same time as the prison population is at crisis point, with more overcrowding, fewer programmes to support rehabilitation, and less power to the judges. The Justice Secretary's claims that his reforms would ““restore public confidence”” and bring ““common sense to sentencing”” are laughable. How does he believe that abolishing indeterminate sentences, and replacing them with extended determinate sentences and ““two strikes”” sentences, will provide greater clarity? Perhaps he might also wish to explain to the public why he feels that it is ““common sense”” to restrict the power of judges to prevent the most serious and violent criminals most at risk of reoffending from being released from prison. Nor do the Justice Secretary's proposals seem to chime with his desire, which I share, to increase the amount of discretion on offer to judges. A judge's role is to make a judgment, within certain parameters, based on the facts of the case, not simply to do as the Justice Secretary of the day instructs. Last week when appearing before the Home Affairs Committee the Justice Secretary reiterated his opposition to moving towards more mandatory sentences, yet just a week later we are presented with increased mandatory life sentences and the removal of the option of a judge handing down an indeterminate sentence if the circumstances permit. I urge the House to reject new clause 30. We should leave IPP sentences on the statute book so that judges can continue to give indeterminate sentences to protect the public in appropriate cases.