I thank all Members who have contributed to this wide-ranging and considered debate; the number of points raised confirms the importance of the amendments we have made during the Bill’s passage. As I set out, the Bill represents the next stage of our reforms to deliver a cost-effective system in which the public can have real confidence. The amendments in the other place have advanced and improved the Bill, and I thank its Members for their continued scrutiny.
Hon. Members have raised several issues that I shall address as best I can in the time left. The hon. Member for Hammersmith (Mr Slaughter) touched on the issue of recall adjudicators. He will be aware that the Government decided to legislate now because of the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Whiston, which was handed down on 2 July and so only recently opened the door to an alternative mechanism that does not require determinate sentence recall cases to be reviewed by a court-like body. I am of course conscious that the change has been brought forward at a late stage in the Bill’s progress, but it was necessary for us to use the opportunity that the Whiston judgment has afforded us.
9.15 pm
As I said earlier, once the details of the new recall adjudicator model have been fully worked up, it will be possible to say more about how it will operate and what the expected costs and benefits will be compared with the current system. We will need to work closely with the Parole Board and others to ensure that any new system achieves what is intended. I will be happy to share further information with Parliament as and when it is
available. There will also be an opportunity for Parliament to scrutinise the procedural rules produced by the Secretary of State, which will set out the procedures that recall adjudicators will be required to follow.
Individual policy impact assessments have been published where the amendments made to the Bill in the other place would lead to an impact of £5 million a year or more on the public sector. These include impact assessments for recall adjudicators and provisions that prohibit the offering of inducements. On the equality impact assessment, we did indeed consider the impact of the proposals ahead of the introduction of the relevant clauses, in accordance with the Ministry of Justice’s duties under the Equality Act 2010.
The hon. Member for Hammersmith asked about the impact of the Bill on prison places. I can tell him that the Government are committed always to have enough prison places to allow us to provide capacity for those sent to us by the courts, and we have indeed considered the impacts carefully.
My right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Maria Miller) spoke powerfully about the part that she and others have played in bringing the issue of revenge pornography to the House. I want to put on record my gratitude to her and my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert) for what they have done to persuade the Government to take action on this issue. Parliament needs to be relevant. It needs to deal with the issues presented to us, and this is a good example of Parliament and the Government doing exactly that. I listened carefully to the important point she made about the data matching of images, which is one that the Government will certainly bear in mind.
My right hon. Friend is also completely right about the social media and internet industry playing its part to deal with the terrible crime of revenge pornography. We cannot just expect the law to provide the complete solution; we need everyone to play their part. We need education and we need the industry to do its part as well.