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Clause 9
Amendments made: No. 117, in page 15, line 30, leave out from 'words' to end of line 31 and insert
No. 118, in page 15, line 38, at end insert--
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton:
I beg to move amendment No. 224, in page 17, line 8, leave out 'five' and insert 'ten'.
Madam Speaker:
With this, it will be convenient to discuss Government amendments Nos. 225 and 226.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton:
The amendments relate to increased sentencing powers for certain sexual offences. They are a response to calls made by members of the Committee.
Amendment agreed to.
Amendments made: No. 225, in page 17, line 10, leave out 'five' and insert 'ten'.
No. 226, in page 17, line 13, leave out 'five' and insert 'ten'.--[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
29 Jan 1997 : Column 417
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton:
I beg to move amendment No. 29, in page 18, line 18, at end insert
Madam Speaker:
With this, it will be convenient to discuss Government amendment No. 30.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton:
The amendments relate to the extension of the powers of the courts to disqualify from driving for offences not directly related to road traffic offences.
Amendment agreed to.
Amendment made: No. 30, in page 18, line 34, at end insert--
1995 Act
Amendment made: No. 227, in page 26, leave out lines
27 and 28.--[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
Mr. McFall:
I beg to move amendment No. 132, in page 28, leave out lines 6 and 7 and insert
Madam Speaker:
With this, it will be convenient to discuss amendment No. 145, in page 28, line 7, after '(rules);', insert
Mr. McFall:
The Scottish Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, among other bodies, was very concerned about the Government's approach, and believed that good behaviour should be the minimum standard required of all prisoners. The absence of misconduct reports considered and proved at a disciplinary hearing should be all that can be reasonably expected from most prisoners.
Given the patchy availability of programmes, education and work in the prison estate, it is suggested--I seek the Minister's comments on this--that it would be unfair to require prisoners to demonstrate
Will the Prison Service have the capacity to make available to all the estimated 40,000 prisoners eligible for assessment of early release the opportunity to participate in programmes designed to address offending behaviour? Any extension of current programmes would require significant additional resources. The Government have not faced up to the issue.
One of the Opposition's serious concerns, which is shared by Her Majesty's chief inspector of prisons, is the state of our Prison Service at the moment. We all recognise that if the Bill is enacted, within one year, the prison establishment will increase by 2,200 prisoners. I recommend the comments on Edinburgh prison in the chief inspector's report, which was released on 16 January. He said that if it was not overcrowded, it could be doing an awful lot better in guarding the public by reducing crime.
Let us consider just what is involved in the Government's approach to the extra prisoners. Under the Bill, every prisoner will expect the prisons to run
29 Jan 1997 : Column 419
At present, the Prison Service is required randomly to test a minimum of 10 per cent. of the prison population. With follow-up tests and tests for other reasons, that figure could be almost 15,000--or more than 1,000 drug tests per month. That will have to be done within a budget that is constrained at the moment. If prisoners are to be offered an educational programme, it is important that the Government address that issue. How can the Government offer programmes to 6,000 of the anticipated 8,400 prisoners who might be serving appropriately long sentences? If we do not have the resources for that, the Government will be letting the Prison Service in for a deluge of prisoner appeals, lawyers' letters and judicial reviews when prisoners are denied the opportunity to earn the early release provided for in the Bill.
Let us examine how such a system would operate. Each of the 6,000 prisoners from the predicted larger population would be entitled to a review every two months, or six times a year. That is a total of 36,000 reviews a year. In Committee, the Minister told us how early release would be calculated. He said:
Each prisoner will receive a report every two months from his hall or gallery officer, his work or party officer and a programmes officer. Those reports will have to be requested, collated and processed. In addition, the assessment board will have to consider behaviour and misconduct reports. The board will have to be staffed, taking up valuable senior management time, to assess 36,000 reviews with perhaps more than 100,000 bits of paper. Each decision will have to be communicated to the prisoner and his new release date entered on to computer records and warrants. A prisoner may have his release date changed every two months.
'from "under" to "this Act" there shall be substituted the words "in making a finding under section 54(1)(a) of this Act or under any of the relevant provisions";'.
'(c) in subsection (2), for the words "the said section 58(1)(a)" there shall be substituted the words "any of the relevant provisions";
(d) in subsection (3), for the words "the said sections 54(1) and 58(1)(a)" there shall be substituted the words "making a finding under section 54(1)(a) of this Act or of any of the relevant provisions"; and
(e) after subsection (5) there shall be added the following subsection--
"(6) In this section the "relevant provisions" means section 53(1), 54(1)(c), 58(1)(a) and 59A(3)(a) and (b) of this Act.".'.--[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
'and, without prejudice to that generality, in relation to district courts an order under this subsection may make provision as respects such courts by reference to whether the court is constituted by a stipendiary magistrate or by one or more justices'.
'( ) In section 14(2) of the Proceeds of Crime (Scotland) Act 1995 (application of fines provisions to confiscation orders), after paragraph (k) there shall be added the following paragraph--
"(l) section 248B.".'.--[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
Amendments made: No. 31, in page 18, line 37, after 'prisoners)' insert
'--
(a)'.
No. 255, in page 18, line 42, leave out
'the sentence for which is not'
and insert
'for which, subject to paragraph (b) below, such a sentence is not the sentence'.
No. 32, in page 19, line 4, at end insert '; and
(b) in subsection (2)--
(i) the word "and" shall cease to have effect; and
(ii) after paragraph (b), there shall be inserted the words--
"; and
(c) where appropriate, the matters mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of section 196(1) of the 1995 Act.".'.--[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
Amendment made: No. 33, in page 24, leave out lines 1 to 17.--[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
Amendments made: No. 34, in page 24, line 29, at end insert 'and'.
No. 35, in page 24, line 30, leave out from beginning to end of line 37.
No. 36, in page 24, line 42, leave out from 'Act;"' to end of page 25, line 3.--[Lord James Douglas-Hamilton.]
'"prescribed minimum standard" means an absence of proved misconduct reports'.
'"prescribed minimum standard" means an absence of proved misconduct reports'.
"positive good behaviour and that they are making constructive use of their time in prison to address their offending behaviour. As appropriate, that might mean participating in a programme on drug addiction or anger management, as well as working productively in the prison workshops."--[Official Report, First Scottish Standing Committee, 28 November 1996; c. 294.]
Those are the Minister's comments in Committee.
"assessments will not be made on the whim of one individual officer. We envisage that the governor or another senior manager will convene an assessment board to consider carefully reports from relevant staff on each prisoner, according to a range of criteria which would be set out in prison rules."--[Official Report, First Scottish Standing Committee, 28 November 1996; c. 275-76.]
7 pm
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