Brown Simeon; Davis KelvinSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Chair for the opportunity to take a call in this debate in regards to the Estimates for Vote Corrections. I do just want to start by acknowledging Corrections for the work that they did during COVID-19 to keep our prisons safe from the virus and I do acknowledge the effort that they went to—a very challenging time for the staff the inmates and also for all parties involved during a pandemic. I know I'm of the view that they've done a very good job at doing that. My understanding was there was only one particular person who had the virus and their reason for being in prison was the fact that they weren't willing to take a test at the border and that's why they were put in there until they actually took the test.I do want to just raise to the committee the issue of the community service sentences and this was raised during the Estimates with the Minister of Corrections. I've asked the Minister a number of questions about this during question time in the House and the issue was that the Epidemic Preparedness (Epidemic Management—COVID-19—Parole Act 2002 and Sentencing Act 2002) Notice 2020 gave powers to Corrections to essentially allow Corrections to provide two options to those who are on community service sentences. One was to remit hours—and we've seen over 138000 hours remitted from community service sentences—or to extend the time frame in which those people could do their time or do the sentence that they were sentenced for for community service. The Minister has backed up the decision to remit hours rather than extend the period by which those hours should be completed within.Of course on this side of the House everyone understands hours couldn't have been completed during the lockdown but the question does need to be asked as to why in no single instance—and I ask the Minister to explain to the committee—were community service hours or the time period under which offenders had to complete those community services hours not extended. He's told the committee—he's said that he has an expectation that hours will be completed that sentences will be completed. But under his watch over 138000 hours of community service sentences have been remitted for approximately 5500 people sentenced to a community service sentence. Now that does not rub up the right way with New Zealanders who did it tough during lockdown did the right thing and at the same time people serving these sentences were essentially let off a portion of their sentences—a substantial portion of their sentences: up to 48 hours or one-third of their sentence—a significant portion of their sentence.The question also needs to be asked as to why this continued during level 1. While New Zealanders were going back to work to get their businesses up and running getting back into work social distancing requirements were no longer required bubbles were no longer required Corrections still remitted hours for a number of offenders. The question needs to be asked and I ask the Minister if he could explain that to the committee.Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): Thank you Mr Chair and first of all I'd like to join with the member in congratulating Corrections for the way they handled the response to the COVID. He was correct. There was just one person who was in a prison who tested positive for COVID and that person did come from the border. The process the procedures that Corrections put in place to make sure that all incoming prisoners were kept separate from the rest of the prison population and the use of personal protective equipment by staff made sure that we didn't have what we saw in prisons overseas—and that was outbreaks and in some cases deaths in prisons. So I'd just like to congratulate all of the corrections officers for the fantastic job they did as a part of the team of 5 million keeping us safe.I'll answer the second part of the question around why under level 1 there were some people who didn't have their—sorry I'll just say 37 people had their community work hours remitted under level 1 and that was simply because some organisations took some time to get back up and running once we got into level 1. We also and I've answered it in the House at question time too with this when the member has been asking questions about the hours—extending the hours would have disadvantaged some individuals for something that was outside of their control. It would have created a backlog of hours for community corrections to manage and with the associated health and safety risks so quite frankly it was just in the best interests. We've got to remember that the people who he's talking about he's saying that their sentences—well look they were given community hours and over half of those 5000 people their community hours were given for traffic offences and not paying fines. We're not talking here about hardened criminals or people who were in prison. We're talking about people in the community. Now they did break the law. There's no getting around that. But also COVID created conditions outside of their ability to manage and we just think that it was best for Corrections to be able to manage those hours in the way they did.SIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): I find that answer incredibly enlightening as to the Minister of Correction's actual approach to sentences and crime because he makes the excuse that they're all just on light sentences. I ask the Minister to guarantee to the committee that of those 5500 none of them were actually convicted for anything more serious than some sort of traffic infringement or a fine because I find that answer to be a little bit inexplicable. And I hope that he can give the committee that assurance that those were the only offences. Also I just when to ask the Minister about the contract with the modular build programme with Decmil which has—we were told at the Estimates hearing $143 million has been spent to date but there are currently no facilities of that modular build programme or the 900-odd cells currently operational. I ask the Minister to update the committee on the programme. Is it still $143 million? Has that gone up? Is it more? How much money has been spent on that contract so far? And are any of those modular build cells—have they been or are they currently operational? What's the status of them and what is the status of the work being done to ensure that they do get completed? And the Minister and his officials told the committee that some of the cells were in different states. Some of them simply needed to be essentially fitted out; others were in various states of completeness. And I ask the Minister to also explain to the committee what the anticipated cost of completing the modular build programme is going to be for taxpayers in addition to the $143 million which has so far been spent on the contract.