Damian Hinds is Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation, and Member of Parliament for East Hampshire.
Every year, the Parole Board makes crucial decisions about whether thousands of the most serious criminals are safe to be released back into our communities when they reach the end of their sentence.
As such, they are a vital part of our criminal justice system and I pay tribute the hard work of its members who oversee decisions to release an offender. In most cases, they get it right.
But in the rare cases where an offender leaves prison and goes on to commit a serious crime, ConservativeHome readers are rightly left wondering why they were released in the first place. This devastates victims, families and their communities and weakens public confidence in the justice system.
In Government, our party has already taken a multitude of steps to tackle crime, and our progress is evident.
Since 2010 we have cut crime outside of fraud and computer misuse by 50 per cent; our pledge to hire 20,000 new police officers is not only well documented but well underway; and we have toughened sentences for the most violent offenders.
But there is much more to do, which is why this week we introduced the Victims and Prisoners Bill into Parliament. This will do a number of things to put public protection back to the forefront of our parole process and victims at the heart of the criminal justice system.
It will do away with the so-called balancing act between the rights of the prisoner to be considered for release and the responsibility of the state to protect the public. Public protection will rightly be paramount.
When it comes to offenders moving to open prisons and eventually being released outright, our biggest concerns focus on the worst offenders convicted of the four most serious crimes: murder, rape, terrorism, or causing or allowing the death of a child.
Every month around 55 offenders convicted of these crimes leave prison, managed under the close supervision of the Probation Service and police and with strict licence conditions to obey. Under these proposals, where ministers believe these offenders still pose a significant risk to public safety, the Justice Secretary will be able to block their release from prison.
As I know from my time at the Ministry of Justice, it is already the case that the public expects ministers to have oversight of these issues, and that they should be able to intervene in major cases to protect the public.
Yet the last Labour government removed ministers’ ability to do this. Since then, there have been a number of high-profile cases, from John Worboys, black cab rapist, to child murderer Colin Pitchfork, that have fundamentally undermined the public’s confidence that the system works to protect them. Our new measures will address this.
We also want victims to be put first. Too often, their voices get lost in the system. Our proposals will enshrine the principles of Victim’s Code in law for the first time, alongside a strong system of oversight to ensure that victims can receive the information and access the support they need as their cases progress.
And when it comes to parole, we are making sure they have the opportunity to ask the Parole Board questions and explain how their lives would be affected by a prisoner being released.
Since October 2022, a pilot in South West England has allowed victims to attend parole hearings so that they can be present when the prisoner’s risk is assessed and decisions are made. During the hearings, probation staff discuss the parole process with them and ensure they get the right support.
We want to roll this out nationally, so that victims across England and Wales have the same opportunity to see justice in-person, just as they did in court when the offender was convicted.
The Bill will also set out the level of service they should expect and require the police, as well as health and local authorities, to work better together to make sure the right support is available where victims need it. These include access to counselling or therapy, our 24/7 support line for victims of rape and sexual violence, or the hundreds of independent advisors for victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse.
This follows our 20 percent increase to the victim surcharge paid by convicted criminals, which helps fund these vital support services.
By combining our reforms to the parole system and new measures for victims into one bill, we are delivering on two key manifesto commitments and underlining our party’s, and this Government’s, commitment to doing right by victims and the public.
It should not be misconstrued that by combining the measures we are diluting the focus of one over the other. It is the victims and their families who want to see the worst offenders stay behind bars more than anyone else, and the first step to ensuring we don’t create more victims is to prioritise public protection above all else.
The reforms we’ve introduced to Parliament this week are about restoring public confidence in the justice system, making our streets safer, and giving victims the support they need; there is no doubt that the Conservative Party continues to be the party of law and order.
But, if Labour want to back up their recent claims about valuing public protection, they would do well to support our Bill
Damian Hinds is Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation, and Member of Parliament for East Hampshire.
Every year, the Parole Board makes crucial decisions about whether thousands of the most serious criminals are safe to be released back into our communities when they reach the end of their sentence.
As such, they are a vital part of our criminal justice system and I pay tribute the hard work of its members who oversee decisions to release an offender. In most cases, they get it right.
But in the rare cases where an offender leaves prison and goes on to commit a serious crime, ConservativeHome readers are rightly left wondering why they were released in the first place. This devastates victims, families and their communities and weakens public confidence in the justice system.
In Government, our party has already taken a multitude of steps to tackle crime, and our progress is evident.
Since 2010 we have cut crime outside of fraud and computer misuse by 50 per cent; our pledge to hire 20,000 new police officers is not only well documented but well underway; and we have toughened sentences for the most violent offenders.
But there is much more to do, which is why this week we introduced the Victims and Prisoners Bill into Parliament. This will do a number of things to put public protection back to the forefront of our parole process and victims at the heart of the criminal justice system.
It will do away with the so-called balancing act between the rights of the prisoner to be considered for release and the responsibility of the state to protect the public. Public protection will rightly be paramount.
When it comes to offenders moving to open prisons and eventually being released outright, our biggest concerns focus on the worst offenders convicted of the four most serious crimes: murder, rape, terrorism, or causing or allowing the death of a child.
Every month around 55 offenders convicted of these crimes leave prison, managed under the close supervision of the Probation Service and police and with strict licence conditions to obey. Under these proposals, where ministers believe these offenders still pose a significant risk to public safety, the Justice Secretary will be able to block their release from prison.
As I know from my time at the Ministry of Justice, it is already the case that the public expects ministers to have oversight of these issues, and that they should be able to intervene in major cases to protect the public.
Yet the last Labour government removed ministers’ ability to do this. Since then, there have been a number of high-profile cases, from John Worboys, black cab rapist, to child murderer Colin Pitchfork, that have fundamentally undermined the public’s confidence that the system works to protect them. Our new measures will address this.
We also want victims to be put first. Too often, their voices get lost in the system. Our proposals will enshrine the principles of Victim’s Code in law for the first time, alongside a strong system of oversight to ensure that victims can receive the information and access the support they need as their cases progress.
And when it comes to parole, we are making sure they have the opportunity to ask the Parole Board questions and explain how their lives would be affected by a prisoner being released.
Since October 2022, a pilot in South West England has allowed victims to attend parole hearings so that they can be present when the prisoner’s risk is assessed and decisions are made. During the hearings, probation staff discuss the parole process with them and ensure they get the right support.
We want to roll this out nationally, so that victims across England and Wales have the same opportunity to see justice in-person, just as they did in court when the offender was convicted.
The Bill will also set out the level of service they should expect and require the police, as well as health and local authorities, to work better together to make sure the right support is available where victims need it. These include access to counselling or therapy, our 24/7 support line for victims of rape and sexual violence, or the hundreds of independent advisors for victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse.
This follows our 20 percent increase to the victim surcharge paid by convicted criminals, which helps fund these vital support services.
By combining our reforms to the parole system and new measures for victims into one bill, we are delivering on two key manifesto commitments and underlining our party’s, and this Government’s, commitment to doing right by victims and the public.
It should not be misconstrued that by combining the measures we are diluting the focus of one over the other. It is the victims and their families who want to see the worst offenders stay behind bars more than anyone else, and the first step to ensuring we don’t create more victims is to prioritise public protection above all else.
The reforms we’ve introduced to Parliament this week are about restoring public confidence in the justice system, making our streets safer, and giving victims the support they need; there is no doubt that the Conservative Party continues to be the party of law and order.
But, if Labour want to back up their recent claims about valuing public protection, they would do well to support our Bill