Minister defends authorities’s report on prisons and sentencing after warning from safety officers
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended the federal government’s report on prisons and sentencing in England and Wales after criticism from senior safety officers, however mentioned “we are able to’t construct our method out of” jail capability pressures within the quick time period.
Earlier at the moment the Occasions newspaper reported that the heads of the Metropolitan police, MI5 and the Nationwide Crime Company have instructed the federal government that plans to launch prisoners early could possibly be of “internet detriment to public security.”
Talking on Occasions Radio the minister mentioned “The danger to public security I’d spotlight is the prospect of our jail system collapsing, which is what we face and why we’ve needed to act.”
He continued by saying:
What we have been handed by the earlier authorities by way of the state of our jail system was nothing wanting felony neglect. They added simply 500 locations to the jail property of their time in workplace, whereas on the identical time, sentence lengths rose, and because of this, we obtained the jail inhabitants rising by roughly 3,000 folks every year.
And we’re heading again to zero capability. If we run out of capability, courts will likely be compelled to droop trials, the police must halt arrests, crimes will go unpunished.
We’ll basically be in a breakdown of regulation and order, so whereas we’re attempting so as to add jail locations as quick as we are able to as a Authorities – and we’ve already created 2,400 since taking workplace, allotted an extra £4.7bn to jail constructing, placing us on monitor to hit 14,000 locations by 2031, we are able to’t construct our method out of this specific disaster we’ve inherited as a result of demand for locations will outstrip provide. So sentencing reform is important.
In a letter to the Times, six police chiefs have warned that with out “severe funding” they are going to be unable to ship on the prime minister’s flagship pledges. The warning comes forward of the federal government spending evaluate, they usually cautioned that cuts will result in the “retrenchment we noticed underneath austerity”.
Key occasions
The Liberal Democrat spokesperson on the enivronment, Tim Farron, has additionally commented on Helena Horton’s earlier report that the fund for nature-friendly farming is to be slashed within the coming spending evaluate.
In an announcement, the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale mentioned:
The Authorities is treating rural communities with gobsmacking contempt. If this involves go ministers can be placing one more nail within the coffin of farming on this nation.
Many farmers are barely making ends meet, working for half the minimal wage, but they nonetheless tirelessly keep our countryside and it’s their stewardship that permits us all to get pleasure from its magnificence. With these cuts, those self same farmers will merely not be capable of defend nature on this method any extra.
The federal government’s utter failure to grasp rural communities dangers decimating them. On the spending evaluate we can’t see farmers come underneath siege as soon as extra, and these cuts can’t come to go.
The pinnacle of the London’s police has opposed Sadiq Khan’s name to decriminalise some hashish possession.
Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley mentioned drug use is a “huge difficulty” for communities, driving delinquent behaviour and acquisitive crime, and {that a} change within the regulation on hashish is “not one thing we’re calling for”.
His feedback comply with a report by the impartial London Medicine Fee (LDC) which referred to as for the decriminalisation of small quantities of pure hashish.
PA Media reviews Rowley instructed the BBC Radio 4 At the moment programme: “In the intervening time we see medicine being on the centre of a whole lot of crime. We see a whole lot of communities complaining about public drug use, and that’s a giant difficulty by way of delinquent behaviour.
“We’re chasing round people who find themselves utilizing medicine in public, which is a priority to communities. We see drug customers turning into addicted and that driving acquisitive crime. It’s a giant half in our present operations.”
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook additionally distanced himself from Khan’s feedback, telling Occasions Radio “The mayor is clearly entitled to his view on the matter however the authorities place on hashish classification stays unchanged.
“Our focus is constant to work with companions throughout well being, policing and wider public providers to drive down drug use, guarantee extra folks obtain well timed therapy and assist, and make our communities and streets safer.”
Anas Sarwar challenges Nigel Farage to debate in Hamilton amid ‘sectarianism’ row
Libby Brooks
Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent
Scottish Labour chief Anas Sarwar has challenged Nigel Farage to debate him head to head because the row between the 2 man over Reform UK’s racist byelection advert grows extra ferocious.
Sarwar denounced Farage as “a pathetic, toxic, little man” after the Reform UK chief accused Sarwar of “introducing sectarianism into Scottish politics” yesterday.
Farage was pushing again on the widespread condemnation of a Fb video focusing on voters within the crunch Holyrood byelection in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse which claims that Sarwar mentioned in a 2022 speech that “he’ll prioritise the Pakistani neighborhood” – which it has no proof to again up.
Sarwar instructed BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland: “What I counsel to Nigel Farage is he ought to ask his chauffeur to place Hamilton into Google Maps. Come up right here. I’ll problem him anytime, anyplace in Hamilton, any city corridor – and he can problem me on his views. I’ll problem him on his views.”
Requested whether or not he sought to prioritise Pakistanis, Sarwar replied: “It’s totally ridiculous to say that. As somebody who has been in Scottish politics for 15 years, and served all communities of all faiths and backgrounds, to listen to that’s totally ridiculous.”
It’s value providing a little bit of context about Farage’s sectarianism declare too – it’s an particularly inflammatory time period to make use of given the historical past of the constituency which is an space of deeply embedded sectarian division, with enclaves of strident assist for Rangers soccer membership, the Orange Order, of which the Conservative candidate Richard Nelson is a member, and the union. Companies in Larkhall, together with the sandwich chain Subway, infamously needed to take away the color inexperienced from their livery due to its affiliation with Catholic-founded Celtic soccer membership.
As I reported from the constituency yesterday, whereas that century-old fissure has healed significantly in recent times, some locals are “scared” of how Reform are creating new divisions.
Steve Barclay, the Conservative MP for North East Cambridgeshire and former Setting, Meals and Rural Affairs secretary in Rishi Sunak’s authorities, has reacted to the information that the fund for nature-friendly farming to expected to be slashed within the UK spending evaluate, as reported by my colleague Helena Horton earlier.
Posting to social media, he claimed “Submit-Brexit farming schemes have been probably the most profitable that Defra had ever ran, and have been world main in exhibiting that meals manufacturing and nature restoration might go hand in hand. Labour’s choices right here will harm our meals safety and atmosphere.”
Lib Dems: Conservatives ought to be ‘ashamed of their failures’ over prepayment vitality meters
1000’s of vitality prospects who had prepayment vitality meters (PPMs) force-fitted are to obtain compensation or have their money owed written off, Ofgem has mentioned.
The regulator introduced that eight firms will hand out compensation and assist after a evaluate into customers combating vitality payments who have been compelled to have pay-as-you-go meters put in.
Liberal Democrat MP for Bathtub, Wera Hobhouse, who has campaigned on the difficulty, mentioned:
It’s high-time that the victims of this scandal are recognised and correctly compensated after vitality firms rode roughshod over them on this disgraceful method. These affected have already waited too lengthy for justice. Pay outs now have to be made in time for the winter months, once we know vitality prices are larger.
The Conservative celebration uncared for these victims and ignored Liberal Democrat makes an attempt to forestall extra folks struggling compelled installations. At the moment they need to really feel ashamed of their failures.
And to suppose that some should not have all their debt written off is just not proper. These firms want to jot down off the money owed they compelled upon the individuals who bore the brunt of this scandal.
PA Media reviews suppliers pays £5.6m in compensation – utilizing the rules set out by Ofgem – to 40,000 prospects who had an involuntary PPM put in throughout the evaluation interval. Suppliers may even write off an additional £13m of debt from prospects.
Inexperienced celebration of England and Wales MP for North Herefordshire Ellie Chowns has mentioned Ofwat’s fine for Thames Water is “lengthy overdue”.
In a submit to social media, Chowns, who’s working to be co-leader of the celebration, mentioned:
This morning’s £123 million nice of Thames Water is lengthy overdue. However the reality is, so long as non-public firms revenue whereas polluting our waterways, it will maintain taking place. Water should be taken again into public fingers – for folks, not shareholders.
Nominations for the celebration management open on 2 June, with voting going down throughout August and outcomes introduced on 2 September. Chowns is working on a joint ticket with present co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Carla Denyer introduced she was stepping down from her co-leadership position earlier this month.
Grocery value inflation within the UK jumped to 4.1% up to now month – the best degree since February 2024 – pushed by the rising value of butter, chocolate and solar cream.
Sarah Butler has extra right here: UK grocery inflation jumps to highest level in 15 months
UK fund for nature-friendly farming to be slashed in spending evaluate
Helena Horton
Setting reporter Helena Horton has this unique:
The character-friendly farming finances is ready to be slashed within the UK spending evaluate, with solely small farms allowed to use, it may be revealed.
Sources on the Division for Setting, Meals and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the post-Brexit farming fund will likely be severely lower within the evaluate on 11 June. It will likely be a part of a swathe of cuts to departments, with police, social housing and nature funding anticipated to face the brunt.
Labour promised a fund of £5bn over two years, from 2024 to 2026, on the finances, which is being honoured, however within the years following that will probably be slashed for all however a number of farms.
The character-friendly farming fund is a package deal of funds that changed the EU’s frequent agricultural coverage and paid land managers for the quantity of land of their care, with the purpose of paying farmers to take care of nature, soil and different public items, fairly than merely for farming and proudly owning land. Many farms depend on these funds to make ends meet.
Learn extra from Helena Horton right here: UK fund for nature-friendly farming to be slashed in spending review
Planning reforms search to spice up smaller builders to construct properties sooner
The federal government is searching for to enhance smaller builders with sooner planning choices and monetary backing to hurry up constructing new properties.
It should set out the element of proposals to chop crimson tape and for planning choices to be shifted away from councillors and in direction of knowledgeable officers as a part of efforts to satisfy Labour’s pledge to construct 1.5m properties by 2029-30.
Talking on Sky Information, housing minister Matthew Pennycook mentioned:
We’ve inherited, as you understand, a housing system that’s not constructing sufficient properties … a part of the explanation it’s damaged is that we’re overly reliant on a small variety of massive quantity housebuilders. So we’ve obtained to diversify the housing market and get smaller housebuilders again within the recreation.
Within the Nineteen Eighties they used to provide about 40% of all properties. At the moment it’s lower than 10%, and so the package deal we’re asserting at the moment allocating land particularly to SME housebuilders, offering them with extra monetary assist, and, sure, easing the burden of regulation in numerous areas, in order that we are able to degree the enjoying area between smaller housebuilders and their bigger counterparts. Get them again within the recreation.
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner is anticipated to go to a building web site in Oxfordshire at the moment to advertise the initiative.
Metropolitan police commissioner: police ‘carrying scar tissue of years of austerity’
Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has mentioned police are “carrying the scar tissue of years of austerity cuts” and added there are “huge challenges” and “new threats round”.
Discussing a name for extra funding that appeared in a letter within the Occasions this morning, PA Media report he instructed BBC Radio 4’s At the moment programme:
This authorities has made three huge pledges that policing must contribute massively to – one, about strengthening neighbourhood policing in order that we could be higher at combating crime in communities and defending folks from delinquent behaviour; secondly, they wish to halve violence in opposition to ladies and ladies in a decade, it’s against the law that’s at epidemic ranges and rising yearly; and thirdly, they wish to halve knife crime.
We predict that’s a balanced and smart ambition, however it is rather, very formidable. We’re carrying the scar tissue of years of austerity cuts, and the consequences of that. Forces are a lot smaller if you evaluate the inhabitants they’re policing than they have been a decade or 15 years in the past.
So we’ve obtained huge challenges, we’ve obtained new threats round. There’s world threats from states, we’ve obtained the rising on-line threats that’s altering demand … we’re not simply asking for extra money, we would like radical reform in policing as properly.
We predict there ought to be fewer police organisations throughout the nation that may be extra environment friendly, extra succesful. We want a correct nationwide police company that helps coordinate issues. So we’re up for change, we’re up for doing issues in a different way, we’re up for radically reforming. Nevertheless it additionally wants extra money, as a result of policing is a folks recreation.
The Liberal Democrats, who’ve been campaigning on water high quality for a while, have responded to the information that Ofwat has imposed a complete nice of £123m on Thames Water.
Tim Farron, their spokesperson for atmosphere, meals, and rural affairs, mentioned:
That is surprising however hardly stunning. Thames Water has been failing for years; failing to speculate, failing to take care of, and failing to ship, and all of the whereas it has been dumping sewage in our rivers and waterways. It has saddled prospects with its money owed and offered them with shoddy service within the meantime.
This ought to be the ultimate nail within the coffin for Thames Water. It must be changed into a public profit firm and Ofwat must be scrapped and changed with an actual regulator with enamel.
Thames Water hit with report Ofwat nice over sewage breaches
Kalyeena Makortoff
Thames Water has been hit with a report £104m nice over environmental breaches involving sewage spills, after failing to function and handle its therapy works and wastewater networks successfully.
The water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, confirmed on Wednesday that – on prime of penalties for breaches associated to dividend payouts – it was issuing the beleaguered water firm with £123m value of fines that might be “paid by the corporate and its buyers, and never by prospects”.
Learn extra from Kalyeena Makortoff right here: Thames Water hit with record fine over sewage breaches
Sadiq Khan requires partial decriminalisation of hashish possession
Kevin Rawlinson
Sadiq Khan has backed requires the partial decriminalisation of hashish possession, as a wide-ranging research suggests the way in which the drug is policed causes higher hurt to society than its utilization.
“I’ve lengthy been clear that we want contemporary considering on methods to cut back the substantial harms related to drug-related crime in our communities,” the London mayor mentioned on Wednesday.
Learn extra from Kevin Rawlinson right here: Sadiq Khan calls for partial decriminalisation of cannabis possession
Shadow minister: authorities doing ‘horrible job on preserving the nation protected’ over prisons in England and Wales
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately has accused the federal government of doing “a horrible job on preserving the nation protected.”
She instructed listeners of Occasions Radio “We’ve already seen that they by chance launched a load of prisoners that they shouldn’t have finished, together with violent home abuses, that are clearly terrifying for the victims of that abuse. They usually simply don’t have the jail scenario underneath management. They should take accountability. They’re now in authorities.”
Put to her that the Conservatives had simply added 455 areas to the jail property in England and Wales in 14 years, she mentioned “Labour are in authorities, they must take accountability for the choices that they’re making.”
Pressed on what the Conservatives would do in a different way within the current circumstances, Whately mentioned “we’re now not in authorities.”
Minister defends authorities’s report on prisons and sentencing after warning from safety officers
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended the federal government’s report on prisons and sentencing in England and Wales after criticism from senior safety officers, however mentioned “we are able to’t construct our method out of” jail capability pressures within the quick time period.
Earlier at the moment the Occasions newspaper reported that the heads of the Metropolitan police, MI5 and the Nationwide Crime Company have instructed the federal government that plans to launch prisoners early could possibly be of “internet detriment to public security.”
Talking on Occasions Radio the minister mentioned “The danger to public security I’d spotlight is the prospect of our jail system collapsing, which is what we face and why we’ve needed to act.”
He continued by saying:
What we have been handed by the earlier authorities by way of the state of our jail system was nothing wanting felony neglect. They added simply 500 locations to the jail property of their time in workplace, whereas on the identical time, sentence lengths rose, and because of this, we obtained the jail inhabitants rising by roughly 3,000 folks every year.
And we’re heading again to zero capability. If we run out of capability, courts will likely be compelled to droop trials, the police must halt arrests, crimes will go unpunished.
We’ll basically be in a breakdown of regulation and order, so whereas we’re attempting so as to add jail locations as quick as we are able to as a Authorities – and we’ve already created 2,400 since taking workplace, allotted an extra £4.7bn to jail constructing, placing us on monitor to hit 14,000 locations by 2031, we are able to’t construct our method out of this specific disaster we’ve inherited as a result of demand for locations will outstrip provide. So sentencing reform is important.
In a letter to the Times, six police chiefs have warned that with out “severe funding” they are going to be unable to ship on the prime minister’s flagship pledges. The warning comes forward of the federal government spending evaluate, they usually cautioned that cuts will result in the “retrenchment we noticed underneath austerity”.
Welcome and opening abstract
Welcome to our rolling protection of UK politics for Wednesday. Listed here are the headlines …
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Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended the federal government’s report on prisons and sentencing in England and Wales after police chiefs warned that sentencing reforms might put strain on frontline providers
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The federal government has introduced a package deal of measures it says is designed to streamline the planning system for small and medium sized housebuilders
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The Treasury is reported to be in a standoff with some ministers over proposed cuts to public providers together with policing and social housing
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Nigel Farage has been accused of leaving a multibillion-pound black gap on the coronary heart of Reform UK’s spending plans after unveiling a series of expensive policy pledges to be paid for by reducing nonexistent objects of presidency spending
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The nationwide water regulator Ofwat has fined Thames Water practically £123m after two investigations into the corporate
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London mayor Sadiq Khan has called for partial decriminalisation of hashish possession
It’s Martin Belam with you right here. You possibly can attain me at martin.belam@theguardian.com in the event you spot typos, errors or omissions, or have a query.
