My Lords, this is a significant and far-reaching Bill that has at its heart a vision for a stronger and fairer justice system. It introduces steps to toughen our approach to the most serious and repeat offenders, ensuring that penalties reflect the seriousness of the crimes committed and providing
greater certainty for victims. It seeks to modernise our court processes and rebalance the judicial review system to reduce the delays caused by inappropriate or unmeritorious claims.
Our system of justice is regarded with enormous respect throughout the world. The quality of our judiciary and our respect for the rule of law are significant factors in attracting foreign investment to our shores. The Government are not, however, complacent. We must constantly examine our criminal and civil justice systems, not simply to respond to the latest headline but to ensure that they are adapting to the modern world.
In the field of criminal justice there is a need to identify the most serious offences and to make sure that our judges have adequate powers to deal with offenders. Equally we are absolutely determined to make a real impact on reoffending by our reforms, which will transform rehabilitation. Your Lordships’ House has enabled, for the first time, offenders who have received short sentences to be properly prepared for release and properly supported when they are released. This way, they will be better able to cope with life on the outside and will be much less likely to offend.
Another major issue is in the provision of education for young offenders. The need to provide this lies at the very heart of our plans in the Bill to introduce secure colleges to give young offenders real educational opportunities, often for the first time in their lives.
Improvements in our civil law system are making a difference. In Part 2 of the LASPO Act 2012, we implemented recommendations suggested by Sir Rupert Jackson to rebalance the system and deal with the consequences of the introduction of conditional fee agreements, which benefitted no one but lawyers and the organisations that fed on the system. It will be a little time before we can assess the full effect of our reforms, but the signs are hopeful.
One of the least attractive aspects of our system was the growth of claims management companies. A claims management regulation unit, which I have visited, has been in place since 2007, providing really effective protection to consumers and closely reining in unacceptable practices. The unit has the power to suspend, vary or cancel licences. Furthermore, I announced last Friday that the unit will be able to impose substantial fines on companies that break the rules. I am glad to tell your Lordships that the number of these companies is reducing, and reducing quickly.
These are just some of the changes that we are making. This Bill is part of the narrative. Criminal justice provisions in Part 1 of the Bill will help to keep our communities safe and secure, and ensure that offenders face the consequences of their crimes. Provisions in this part of the Bill place restrictions on the use of simple cautions on a statutory footing to ensure that serious and repeat offenders are treated consistently and are punished appropriately.
Unless there are exceptional circumstances, offenders will no longer receive a caution for the most serious offences, such as rape and robbery. For other offences, we are limiting the repeated use of cautions for the same, or similar, offences committed within a two-year
period. We are ensuring that for all dangerous offenders and those who commit offences of particular concern, the Parole Board will consider their risk before early release can be authorised. This will improve public protection and encourage offenders to take responsibility for their own rehabilitation.
We have also made provision to ensure that the courts have sufficient tools to deal with offences that can have an enormous impact on victims and our communities. That is why we have increased the penalty for causing death while driving while disqualified, and introduced a new offence of causing serious injury while driving while disqualified. It is why we are adding further terrorism offences to the enhanced dangerous offender sentencing scheme, as well as increasing maximum penalties to life for offences where that is not already the case.
It is right that we have the necessary tools to monitor offenders on licence and to deal with breaches of licence conditions. The Bill introduces an additional “recall and release” test for determinate sentence prisoners, requiring consideration of whether, if released, an offender would be highly likely to commit further breaches of their licence, including further offending. This seeks to end the continuous cycle of fixed-term recalls and automatic release for offenders who persistently and wilfully breach their licence conditions.
We are also taking powers to impose mandatory location monitoring of offenders released on licence. The use of innovative new technology will help to deter reoffending, allow better monitoring of whereabouts and compliance with other licence conditions, as well as assist with crime detection.
It is sometimes the case that issues of national concern highlight the need for our laws to evolve to tackle different types of behaviour. The horrifying events at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, and the review into the safety of patients in England that followed, exposed a gap in legislation as regards ill treatment or wilful neglect of users of health and care services. It was rightly recommended that this should be rectified. The Bill closes that gap by creating new criminal offences to deal with these completely unacceptable behaviours.
High-profile failings in police conduct have dominated headlines in recent years, most notably following the revelations about the handling of the Stephen Lawrence investigation. The existing common-law offence of misconduct in public office dates back several hundred years and is not specific either to cases of corruption or to police officers. It is not always well suited to dealing with or deterring the pattern of corruption in today’s information age, so we are introducing the new police corruption offence, which will ensure that the small number of officers who are corrupt are properly punished and face the appropriate penalty for their crimes. However, we also recognise the special role that police and prison officers play in routinely coming into contact with dangerous offenders in difficult situations. That is why we are raising the starting point for sentencing a murderer of a police or prison officer in the course of their duty to a whole-life order.
Part 2 of the Bill deals with the critical matter of youth justice. Under this Government, crime and offending by young people is down, with fewer entering the
criminal justice system and ending up in custody. At present we pay around £100,000 a year for a place in youth custody, yet almost 70% go on to reoffend within 12 months. No current youth custodial establishment—young offender institutions, secure training centres and secure children’s homes—is providing good enough outcomes. For young offenders where custody is necessary, we want to make the best use of the opportunity to help to turn their lives around. We need to be better at rehabilitating young offenders.
Secure colleges will have education at their heart, with all other services designed in support of raising educational attainment and tackling offending behaviour. Figures suggest that 86% of young men in young offender institutions have been excluded from school at some point, and more than half of 15 to 17 year-olds in YOIs have the literacy and numeracy level expected of a seven to 11 year-old.
Secure colleges will provide the support and skills that young offenders need to stop reoffending and to contribute positively to society in adult life. The Bill establishes the statutory framework for secure colleges, with further detail to be set out in the secure college rules. Operators of secure colleges will be invited to deliver a broad, intensive and engaging curriculum to support and motivate the full range of ages and abilities of young people accommodated in these establishments.
The Government recognise that there are likely to be some detained young people who will continue to require separate specialist accommodation, either on the grounds of their age, acute needs or vulnerability. We are therefore committed to continuing to provide separate specialist accommodation, such as secure children’s homes, for this group of young offenders.
On 9 June my right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice informed both Houses that the Ministry of Justice had selected a preferred provider—Wates—to design and build the pathfinder secure college in the east Midlands. Subject to parliamentary approval, if this pathfinder proves effective it will be a model for a future network of secure colleges across England and Wales. I can assure your Lordships that construction will begin only if this Bill receives Royal Assent.
Before this Bill reaches Report, we will launch a public consultation on our plans for secure college rules, which will set out the core requirements to ensure that the establishments operate safely and securely. I will inform the House of the details of this consultation in due course. We also intend to hold a meeting prior to Committee, to which all Peers will be invited, to show in more detail what the plans are, in physical terms, for the pathfinder college.
I hope that all noble Lords will at the very least keep an open mind and not resort to describing these establishments as “fortresses” or “Titan” prisons. Such rhetoric hardly helps in our quest to help some of our most vulnerable young people and is surely not the approach that should be adopted in your Lordships’ House.
This part also makes sure that all 17 year-olds have access to an appropriate adult when they receive a caution, and we are changing the law regarding referral
orders to provide greater flexibility and powers for the court when punishing a breach or dealing with further offending.
Part 3 is very much about increasing the efficiency and flexibility of the courts to keep pace with the modern world. At present, much court time is wasted in hearing cases in open court when the defendant fails to attend; the only people present are magistrates and prosecutors. We could make better use of this valuable time elsewhere. This Bill allows one magistrate to deal with low-level regulatory cases away from traditional magistrates’ courtrooms. The types of cases that we are concerned about are the likes of failing to register the new keeper of a vehicle or depositing litter. We are ensuring that the defendant’s right to request a hearing is preserved, as the procedure will apply only when a defendant has either expressly or impliedly waived that right. We are also enabling more cases to bypass the Court of Appeal and go straight to the Supreme Court, again saving valuable court time. I reassure noble and learned Lords from the Supreme Court that that will be only with the consent of the Supreme Court.
The use of the internet has had a profound impact on how we carry out our daily lives, so we are also modernising the law on juror misconduct to bring it into the 21st century. Some of your Lordships might have seen that the Attorney-General has today announced that the Government intend to table an amendment to omit the provisions to update the law of contempt of court as it relates to publications. The measures were intended to provide clarity, to allow the media time to take down material, and to provide a defence until that point. The media, however, raised strong objections. Since the existing law gives protection for the integrity of court proceedings, we have decided not to pursue these measures.
This part also introduces a charge, payable by adult offenders on conviction, to contribute towards to the costs of the criminal courts. We already recognise that those who bring cases in the family and civil courts should bear some of the court costs in those jurisdictions. These provisions make that a reality in the criminal sphere, so that those who give rise to the costs of the criminal courts share the burden of those costs, rather than it solely being the burden of the taxpayer. Repayments can be set at an affordable rate, and we are encouraging rehabilitation by allowing the charge to be remitted after a certain period without reoffending provided that the offender has also taken reasonable steps to pay off the charge. To ensure that we have maximum flexibility, we are also extending the powers of fines officers to vary repayment of financial impositions after default, as well as prior to default.
Finally, I turn to Part 4, on the matter of judicial review, which is one of the most important means by which government and other public bodies can be held legally accountable for their decisions and actions. However, judicial review has grown significantly over recent years, and while there are many important and valuable judicial review cases brought every year there are also too many that are not. We have taken a
detailed look at judicial review and concluded that there is a case for some proportionate and common-sense reform.
Part 4 will provide a better balance, ensuring that judicial review continues as a check on the Executive while limiting the potential to abuse it for collateral purposes, such as delay. The clauses in Part 4 deliver two things. The first is a much needed rebalancing of the financial risk of bringing or driving a weak judicial review. We think it right that those who bring or choose to become involved in a judicial review should face their fair share of the financial risk that entails, rather than expecting a subsidy from the body they are challenging. This is the position in other civil litigation.
We will therefore ensure that the courts have the information they need to use their existing powers to reach through, say, a shell company when awarding costs against an unsuccessful party. That does not mean that everyone who donates to a campaign will be at risk, but it is right that there should be a proportionate liability for those who in reality control, guide and stand to benefit from a judicial review.