Tuesday Volume 550 18 September 2012 No. 46 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 18 September 2012 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2012 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 763 18 SEPTEMBER 2012 764 managed and assisted so that they give up on crime, and House of Commons that we use prison for those for whom it is necessary, but use other means to get other people away from Tuesday 18 September 2012 crime? Chris Grayling: I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock for his kind words of welcome. I look forward to having many dealings with his Committee, and no doubt some PRAYERS sharp questioning. Let me assure him that I view rehabilitation very much as a significant element of our criminal justice system. It will be a major theme of the [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] work I do at the Ministry of Justice. Although people may have to go to prison in recognition of the offences they have committed, it is absolutely right and proper that we should do everything we possibly can to ensure Oral Answers to Questions that they do not go back. Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab): I am JUSTICE pleased to see the Minister in his new role. Will he take a look at the “Choose change” project, which has been running in Manchester for a number of years, working The Secretary of State was asked— with offenders in prison to prepare for all aspects of their lives on release? It has been an extremely interesting Integrated Offender Management Framework exercise in dealing with all the things that may lead prisoners back into crime on release, and practitioners 1. Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab): What steps he in Manchester would very much welcome it if the new plans to take to ensure the future effectiveness of the Minister would like to make a visit. integrated offender management framework through the funding of key partners. [121177] Chris Grayling: The hon. Lady is making an early bid. I can assure her that I have every intention of The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice spending as much time as I can away from Westminster, (Chris Grayling): Integrated offender management looking at the work being done in the public sector, as arrangements are helping to reduce crime and reoffending well as by those working with the public sector, to try to in local areas through effective partnership working understand where we can improve and build on existing and multi-agency co-ordination. A key strength of the successes. I am sure that if I am in Manchester and the approach is that it makes best use of the resources opportunity arises, I shall do as she suggests. available locally. Many probation trusts and prisons are following an IOM approach. We hope that local partners Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab): Let me take this will continue to invest in such approaches where they opportunity to welcome the Justice Secretary to his are delivering strong outcomes and offering best value place—and, indeed, the Prisons Minister and the other for money. Ministers to their places. They say a new broom sweeps clean, so let us have a go. The last Justice Secretary Nic Dakin: I spent a day looking at IOM in Scunthorpe thought that indeterminate sentences were a scandal. recently and was impressed by what I saw. Will the We are all hoping that the new Justice Secretary, given Secretary of State work with colleagues from the his comments in the past, is looking at how to introduce Department for Work and Pensions to give probation some form of risk-based release. However, given the services using IOM the flexibility to provide intensive ruling by the European Court of Human Rights this support to get offenders into jobs through projects such morning, how long are we likely to have to wait? as Empower in north Lincolnshire, rather than allowing them to languish on an unresponsive Work programme? Chris Grayling: The ECHR ruling this morning was very much about rehabilitation, which is something that Chris Grayling: Given my last job and my current job, I feel strongly about and which needs to be clear and I am probably pretty well positioned to ensure that the present in prisons, as well as after prison. However, I am two Departments work closely together. I strongly believe very disappointed by the ECHR decision this morning. in the linkage between the rehabilitation of offenders This is not an area where I welcome the Court seeking and work to try to get former offenders into employment, to make rulings, and we intend to appeal this morning’s and I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the two decision. Departments will work closely together to achieve that goal. No Win, No Fee Agreements Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD): On behalf 2. Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con): What of the Select Committee on Justice, may I welcome the recent progress he has made on changes to the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor to his office arrangements for no win, no fee agreements. [121178] and wish him well? Does the right hon. Gentleman recognise that he The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice is responsible for spending a lot of public money to (Mrs Helen Grant): The Government have made it a ensure that people who come out of prison are effectively priority to reform the costs of civil litigation and, in 765 Oral Answers18 SEPTEMBER 2012 Oral Answers 766 particular, the no win, no fee conditional fee agreements. Damian Green: Central Government currently spend A package of major reforms is being implemented in about £66 million a year on supporting witnesses and April 2013, under the provisions of the Legal Aid, victims of crime, and we aim to raise up to an additional Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. I £50 million a year from offenders, through the victims’ would also refer my hon. Friend to two written ministerial surcharge and other financial impositions, to be used statements, dated 24 May and 17 July. for support services for victims and witnesses. The police and crime commissioners will therefore have Iain Stewart: I warmly welcome the Minister to her sufficient budget to enable them to make their own new role. Will she give the House an estimate of the cost judgments on how best to support victims in their area. of the current no win, no fee arrangements to the NHS, and of the savings that might consequently be achieved Nigel Mills: Many victims feel let down by the whole by the changes? process. Does the Minister agree that the police and crime commissioners, with their local knowledge, will Mrs Grant: Defendants such as the NHS were required be able to ensure that victims get a fair deal throughout to pay inflated success fees under the old regime, as well the investigation and sentencing processes? as after-the-event insurance premiums. In 2010-11, the NHS Litigation Authority paid £200 million to claimant Damian Green: My hon. Friend is right. Individual lawyers. Under the new reforms, those costs will be PCCs in specific areas will be the best placed to understand reduced, allowing more money to be spent on patient the needs of the local community and to commission care. the services to meet those needs, as they will be taking those decisions closer to the people who will be most Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab): I, too, warmly affected by them. That is the whole thrust of this congratulate the hon. Lady on her new job. I am sure important reform. that she will be an absolute star. May I urge her, however, to think carefully about no win, no fee agreements? Alun Michael (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op): Last week, scurrilous and despicable low-lifes in France May I first declare an interest, as I am standing as the invaded the privacy of a young woman who is able to Labour and Co-operative candidate for police and crime take legal action because she is very wealthy, but many commissioner in south Wales? people in this country, including the Dowler family, would never have been able to take legal action in a Does the Minister agree that the treatment of victims privacy case had it not been for no win, no fee arrangements. and witnesses remains deeply unsatisfactory in many Can we please, please ensure that we do not chuck the areas of the court system and in the criminal justice baby out with the bathwater? system generally? In providing resources to police and crime commissioners, will he ensure that attrition does not occur along the way and that those resources will be Mrs Grant: I hear what the hon. Gentleman says, but adequate to allow proper, enhanced attention to be paid we firmly believe that, while meritorious claims will to the needs of victims? continue to be made, unnecessary and avoidable claims have to be deterred. Legal aid will, of course, be available for those who need it most, and for the most serious Damian Green: I am enchanted to hear a pre-bid for cases, under the exceptional funding rules. additional public spending from a candidate, even before the election. The right hon. Gentleman is demonstrating his experience there. As I have just explained to the hon. Police and Crime Commissioners (Victims’ Services) Member for Easington (Grahame M.