Perhaps that is one of the flaws. I will move on, because I am not in a position to arbitrate between the two sides while I am speaking.
I see that the Justice Secretary has said that even if such amendments were passed in some form he would have to delay their implementation because there is no space in the prisons. That strikes me as something that we should consider in deciding whether to go ahead. Incidentally, it is also a strong argument for more rational sentencing decisions to ensure that we are locking up the right people and not the wrong people. We ought also to be more rational about how many years people get for different offences.
4.45 pm
We have already heard from Labour’s Front Benchers that we should just open up more prisons, but—[Interruption.] There are clearly cheers for that idea from some on the right as well. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Sir Alan Beith)pointed out yesterday, we already have one of the highest imprisonment rates in the western world. Why is that something of which we should be proud?
Every prison place also comes with a cost of about £40,000 a year on average, so there is an economic argument, too. Is locking people up for a second possession offence really the most effective way to spend money to keep us safe? Is that genuinely the best way to spend that money? The Government have a programme for ending gang and youth violence and I hope that we would all support that, but it is quite a small programme. The total budget of the entire ending gang and youth violence programme is less than the cost of putting 13 people in jail for a year. That is an astonishing figure. Surely we could ensure less gang violence and less knife crime by increasing the funding for that programme rather than putting it all into prisons. We should spend a lot more money, as £2 million extra spent on preventive work could make more of a difference, save more lives and ensure that more people live a life free of fear than the provisions in this Bill will achieve.
As the Minister pointed out, one flaw is that we do not know the consequences of the new clauses, because the figures have not been considered, but even just 100 extra people in jail for six months would cost £20 million. Is it genuinely the view of the whole House that, rather than spending the money elsewhere, that is the best way to reduce knife crime?