Meeting of the Parliament 13 November 2024
This is about scheduling to enable us to have that debate. The debate is what Liam Kerr wants not to happen. What I am doing—which was clearly not done by Mr Kerr—is placing the issue in its wider context.
Our position is not unique; other parts of the United Kingdom face a similar challenge. The previous UK Government released more than 10,000 prisoners early between October 2023 and July 2024. The new Administration is now releasing many prisoners who have completed 40 per cent rather than 50 per cent of their sentence. We are taking action, but nonetheless we remain in an urgent situation. That is why the cabinet secretary informed the Parliament on 10 October that we would seek to introduce emergency legislation in November—that is this month, in case anyone has not been paying attention—that would seek to change the release point for most short-term prisoners who are serving sentences of less than four years from 50 per cent of their sentence, as currently happens, to 40 per cent. That was in a very clear parliamentary statement, in which the cabinet secretary specifically stated that she would ask Parliament’s permission to progress on an emergency basis. The scheduling of a timetabling motion for the bill and a stage 1 debate should not be a surprise to anybody, but it seemed to be a surprise to Liam Kerr. At least Martin Whitfield seemed to be paying attention in that regard.