argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Leaving the EU: Legal Systems — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: What assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the operation of the legal system in each legal jurisdiction in the UK.; What assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the operation of the legal system in each legal jurisdiction in the UK.
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not sure that I would accept the hon. and learned Lady’s characterisation of the position as one of oversight. I made it clear in the very first answer I gave in this role that I fully appreciate that Scotland had a distinct legal system. However, I would certainly be delighted to discuss the matter with her further.
Leaving the EU: Legal Systems — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: What assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the operation of the legal system in each legal jurisdiction in the UK.; What assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the operation of the legal system in each legal jurisdiction in the UK.
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): I want to ensure that we end up in a position that is good for the legal system and legal services in every part of the United Kingdom. That certainly includes Scotland, and of course I will want to engage with representations and representatives from all parts of the United Kingdom to ensure that we get the best possible deal.
Leaving the EU: Legal Systems — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: What assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the operation of the legal system in each legal jurisdiction in the UK.; What assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the operation of the legal system in each legal jurisdiction in the UK.
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): After Brexit, can we do something that we cannot do now? In other words, if an EU national is found guilty of an imprisonable offence, will we be able to deport them to serve their sentence in prison in their own country and ban them from ever returning?
Leaving the EU: Legal Systems — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: What assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the operation of the legal system in each legal jurisdiction in the UK.; What assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the operation of the legal system in each legal jurisdiction in the UK.
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Ben Bradley), we are considering future criminal justice arrangements with the European Union. We want close working relationships, but we also need to work together to ensure that foreign national offenders can be removed when possible.
Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend and welcome him to his new position. As he rightly says, it is in our best interest that ex-offenders leaving prison do not reoffend. One of the key issues is to ensure that prison governors honour their commitment under the Homelessness Reduction Act to ensure that people are prepared for life outside prison. What action will he take to ensure that prison governors train offenders who are due to leave prison so that they do not reoffend?
Legal Aid — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Lucy Claire Leigh (Frazer) (Conservative, Centre-right): The provision of legal aid to support the most vulnerable is an important part of our justice system. We spend £1.6 billion a year on legal aid, which is more than a fifth of the Ministry of Justice’s budget. In terms of accessing legal aid, there is an online tool at gov.uk to help people to check their entitlement to it.
Legal Aid — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Derek Gordon Thomas (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome that answer, but people in my constituency in west Cornwall find it hard to access the legal aid that they are entitled to. In fact, there is only one office there that holds a legal aid contract, and it deals only with family law. Will the Department assess how the changes in legal aid funding have affected rural people, and consider measures to address the shortage?
Legal Aid — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Lucy Claire Leigh (Frazer) (Conservative, Centre-right): Maintaining access to justice is extremely important, which is why the Legal Aid Agency regularly reviews the capacity of the legal aid market to cope with demand and takes action when regional shortfalls develop. Those in need of urgent advice in Cornwall and elsewhere can always use the civil legal aid specialist telephone service. In autumn 2017, the Legal Aid Agency began national tendering for new civil contracts to start in autumn 2018.
Oakhill Secure Training Centre — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Phillip James Lee (Conservative, Centre-right): The findings of a recent Ofsted inspection report on Oakhill secure training centre are completely unacceptable. We took urgent action to address Ofsted’s concerns. The Ministry of Justice’s monitoring team has been carrying out further scrutiny to investigate Ofsted’s findings.
Oakhill Secure Training Centre — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Phillip James Lee (Conservative, Centre-right): The children being held at Oakhill can sometimes be extremely challenging, and the staff have to be able to control them to protect not only themselves, but other children and staff. With reference to Sodexo and the report into Peterborough Prison, the situation is not acceptable. We have already engaged with Sodexo, particularly around strip searching, and I expect and have demanded improvements.
Victim Impact Statements — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): It is critical that the voice of the victim is heard in the criminal justice system. The victims code is clear that victims are entitled to make a victim personal statement to explain in their own words, to a court or to the Parole Board, how the crime has affected them. We are spending £96 million this year to fund critical support services for victims of crime. Under the code, all victims are entitled to a needs assessment to determine what emotional and practical support they need.
Victim Impact Statements — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Thomas Christopher John Pursglove (Conservative, Centre-right): I know from a family in my constituency that making a victim impact statement, and having to do so regularly, is a very stressful and nerve-racking experience. What steps is he taking to ensure that in those situations the victim, rather than the offender, is the priority?
Victim Impact Statements — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend has raised this with me before. We are committed to making sure that practical and emotional support is in place for victims throughout the criminal justice process, such as by providing independent sexual violence and domestic violence advisers. If victims wish to attend a parole hearing to present their victim personal statement, a Secretary of State representative is allocated to provide support and guidance on the day.
Victim Impact Statements — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
George Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome my right hon. Friend to his post. In 2009, my constituent Mr Samuel was acquitted of common assault following an unsuccessful prosecution centred on a fabricated witness statement by the police. Since then, his efforts to seek redress through the courts have been frustrated by a cover-up that I believe reaches right to the top of the Crown Prosecution Service. Will my right hon. Friend please accept a meeting with me at his earliest convenience to discuss the real issues concerning this case?
Victim Impact Statements — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): As I announced to the House on Friday, Dame Glenys Stacey has agreed to undertake a fact-finding review of what happened with regard to victims in the Worboys case. It is important that we get to the bottom of precisely what happened and whether processes were followed. I am aware of conflicting evidence on that point, so it is important that we pursue it. I quite understand why the hon. Gentleman suggests an end-to-end review, and indeed there are questions that need to be considered about what happened in 2008-09 and so on. As I have said before, at the moment I want to focus on the immediate questions in front of us in terms of support for victims and the Parole Board process.
Victim Impact Statements — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Zac Goldsmith (Conservative, Centre-right): The proposed release of John Worboys has absolutely horrified and terrified his many, many victims. Like me, they are appalled to learn today that he has been moved to London’s category A Belmarsh Prison. Will my right hon. Friend assure us that he will do everything in his power to ensure that Worboys is released with strict licence conditions that keep him out of Greater London?
Victim Impact Statements — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend has been tireless on this matter in recent weeks. The precise conditions are operational matters that are decided at operational level, but let me reassure him that nearly a fortnight ago I wrote to the relevant authorities and stressed the need to ensure that the concerns of victims are at the heart of the process and that the most stringent conditions are applied.
HMP Liverpool — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): I visited Liverpool prison yesterday. The inspector’s report was genuinely disturbing, and of course that is reflected on the ground. There are some very good prison officers working there, but unfortunately the conditions are really shocking, particularly basic sanitation, with piles of garbage. We now have a new governor in place, millions of pounds are going into the infrastructure, and 172 places have been closed so that we can begin a proper refurbishment and maintenance programme. Most importantly, we must not allow this to happen again.
HMP Liverpool — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): Those are important questions that we will look at closely. We have published an action plan for Liverpool prison. There are two key things we need to do. The first is about leadership. The governor has now been replaced. The second is that we have put in place a new urgent notification process, so if anything like this happens again and inspectors raise it, we will be forced to reply within 28 days. But that is only the beginning, because this requires a complete change in culture that focuses on getting back to basics: cleaning the prison, reducing the violence, reducing the drugs and making sure the healthcare provision is in place.
HMP Liverpool — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: I congratulate my hon. Friend on his new post—the whole House knows of his passion for prisons and prisons policy. Will he hold to account those in the senior echelons of the Prison Service for the disgraceful and appalling conditions in the prison?
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): This is a big question of management. There are many very hard-working people at Liverpool prison who take their jobs very seriously and work very long hours, but we have to balance that with a recognition that clearly there have been fundamental failings. People will be held to account. Above all, we need to work with the team at the prison to ensure that in future it is a clean and decent place, both to protect the public and to reduce reoffending.
HMP Liverpool — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: I congratulate my hon. Friend on his new post—the whole House knows of his passion for prisons and prisons policy. Will he hold to account those in the senior echelons of the Prison Service for the disgraceful and appalling conditions in the prison?
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): We will look carefully at the maintenance issues in Liverpool, but sadly the problems are not only to do with Amey; they are also to do with relationships between management and the contractors and how prisoners were, or were not, used to clean the estate. We have made a huge amount of difference in just the past five weeks by changing not the Amey contract but the management approach and the focus on cleanliness.
HMP Liverpool — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: I congratulate my hon. Friend on his new post—the whole House knows of his passion for prisons and prisons policy. Will he hold to account those in the senior echelons of the Prison Service for the disgraceful and appalling conditions in the prison?
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): We do not believe that this is fundamentally an ideological fight between the private and public sectors. Most of those people working for Carillion—70% of them—were public servants just three years ago, and most of those people working for Amey were public servants in the prison service. Most of the problems have been solved through basic management and leadership. There has been a deep clean, the yard units have been increased from five to 18, and the conditions have improved rapidly. In the end, a lot of this is about management, not a private/public debate.
Offenders: Employment and Education — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Education
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): We have been doing three things on education: first, we have been making sure that governors are empowered to bring in their own education providers; secondly, we have been setting minimum standards, particularly on English language learning; and thirdly, through the new futures network, we have been connecting people to jobs.
Offenders: Employment and Education — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Michael Louis David Fabricant (Conservative, Centre-right): I will My hon. Friend the Minister knows that 46% of prisoners have a literacy age of only 11. That proportion is three times the national average, which is still too high. Does he agree that that lack of literacy is often the reason why people go to prison in the first place? Will he explain in a bit more detail how we can reduce the illiteracy level so that we do not get reoffending?
Offenders: Employment and Education — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): As the Speaker implies in his reprimand to me, the causes of offending are many and multiple. Literacy is one of them, along with many issues relating to people’s health, education, social background and, indeed, our criminal justice system as a whole. Nevertheless, literacy is key to the reduction of reoffending because it is key to getting a good job. Good education provision in prisons, driven by governors, is going to be key to addressing this issue.
Offenders: Employment and Education — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes. We have empowered governors by having in place a new procurement contract, which means that we in the Ministry are going to do the central procurement bureaucracy, but the governors will be able to choose who they use to train and educate the prisoners. I saw a good example in Altcourse Prison in Liverpool of how governors are also going to be able to choose which companies to pair with. The excellent work on metal welding that I saw in Altcourse will really contribute to those prisoners getting jobs in the community.
Offenders: Employment and Education — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): Among the many challenges that face education in prisons is the issue of numbers, which is why we have now committed to having 2,500 more prison officers on the estate, and we are delivering that ahead of target. That will allow us to have in place the key-worker programmes, in which each officer will be paired with six prisoners to guide them through the process.
Offenders: Employment and Education — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): That is absolutely true. An enormous number of programmes have huge success in reducing reoffending. For example, in Brixton prison, the Clink programme has reduced reoffending by 43%, but we can do much more to learn the lessons and have a proper standardised document that takes what works elsewhere and drives it through the entire system.
Offenders: Employment and Education — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Labor
Andrew Edmund Armstrong Selous (Conservative, Centre-right): In order to encourage more businesses to take on ex-offenders, the Government need to lead by example and not just by exhortation. The Ban the Box initiative was brought in across Government a few years ago to encourage that. How is ex-offender employment going within Government and the public sector?
Offenders: Employment and Education — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Education
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): This is of course a balance between empowering the governor so that they can have a tailored programme that is flexible and works for the prison and having decent national standards. That will mean setting the curriculum at a national level, having the area managers engaged over the governors and also giving the governors the ability to have education that is relevant to their areas—skills that are relevant to the jobs outside the prison gates.
Parole Board — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): Public safety is the primary consideration in Parole Board decisions on releasing a prisoner. The law requires that the Parole Board may direct release only if it is satisfied that continued detention is no longer necessary for the protection of the public. Parole Board members are selected on account of their experience and ability to assess risk. Their decisions are based on a comprehensive assessment of the ongoing risk posed by the offender, using detailed reports produced by risk management professionals. More broadly, I have already announced that my Department will be carrying out a full review of the relevant processes and procedures in place for victims relating to Parole Board decisions, and we will consider whether they should be improved.
Parole Board — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Alberto Castrenze Costa (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome my right hon. Friend to his post. Both of us worked in the same City firm—Richards Butler—at different stages over a number of years. In light of the recent John Worboys case, my constituents have raised similar concerns with regard to the release of Colin Pitchfork who brutally raped and murdered two teenage girls in my constituency and pleaded not guilty. He was only found guilty as a result of DNA evidence, which was a first at the time. What assurances can my right hon. Friend provide for the safety of my constituents and others who have not been fully considered in this matter? Will he assure us that the Parole Board will take into account the safety of our citizens in regard to Mr Pitchfork’s release?
Parole Board — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his remarks. The safety of the public is the Parole Board’s overriding concern in considering whether a prisoner should be released, and that will be the Board’s concern when it comes to reviewing Pitchfork’s detention. I can confirm that the families of Pitchfork’s victims are receiving regular contact under the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme. Specifically, they have been given the opportunity to submit a victim personal statement to the Parole Board and to make representations regarding licence conditions for any upcoming parole hearing.
Parole Board — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): Ultimately, these are operational decisions. A number of factors have to be taken into account in deciding what licensed conditions exist, but, clearly, the views and concerns of victims are an important part of that process.
Parole Board — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Justine Greening (Conservative, Centre-right): In relation to the Parole Board’s review of public safety, for those of us with deeply concerned victims of John Worboys in our constituencies, can my right hon. Friend confirm that the Government will at least co-operate with the judicial review now being brought by victims?
Parole Board — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
David Michael Gauke (Conservative, Centre-right): In my statement to the House on Friday, I set out that I would not be pursuing a judicial review on behalf of the Government in this case, but I also made it very clear that I did not want to say or do anything that would in any way stand in the way of others who may have different routes into a judicial review. I maintain that position.
Victims of Crime — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Phillip James Lee (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government want victims to get the support they need to cope with, and as far as possible recover from, the effects of crime. We are spending £96 million in 2017-18 to fund critical support services for victims of crime. That includes £7.2 million for nationally commissioned rape support services.
Victims of Crime — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Phillip James Lee (Conservative, Centre-right): The case of Worboys has troubled us all; it has troubled me personally—of course it has. In this particular case, Dame Glenys Stacey is investigating the review from a probation point of view. As the Secretary of State has already said, there are operational responsibilities with regard to where he is transferred to and the directions when he is released and where he can go. The Department is engaged with that on a daily basis.
Victims of Crime — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Gareth Alan Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): The biggest insult that can be given to a victim of crime is the imposition of a derisory sentence on the offender. Will my hon. Friend update the House on his plans to widen the scope of the unduly lenient sentence scheme, as set out in the Conservative party manifesto?
Victims of Crime — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Phillip James Lee (Conservative, Centre-right): As I am sure my hon. Friend is aware, the Government committed in their manifesto to consider the extension of the scope of the unduly lenient sentence scheme. My right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General is reviewing that.
Drones — House of Commons, 2018-01-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Roderick James Nugent Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): I first pay tribute to my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey (Mr Gyimah), for his extraordinary work on drones. We have done a range of work, ranging from Operation Trenton with the police, which took place in 2016, through to the conviction of over 28 individuals for drone-related offences.