David Gauke calls for end to ‘bidding war’ between parties as he is appointed to sentencing review – UK politics live

Former Conservative justice sectary to carry out review by Ministry of Justice considering alternatives to sending people to jailShabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has said that mistakes that affected the first set of early prisoner releases under Labour should have been “ironed out” ahead of the second round take place today.In an interview with Times Radio, she said that 37 prisoners were released by mistake when around 1,700 inmates were released early in September. She went on:All 37 were returned to custody, and that operational part of the system actually ended up working exactly as it should.But those mistakes have now been ironed out, and I’m confident that the releases taking place will now be exactly as we need them to be, and victims who are required to be notified will be notified.We’ll do a statistics release in due course, as we normally would, on rates of recall and on reoffending in our prison estate.What I can tell you is our early assessment is that the rates of recall and potential reoffending in the cohort that has been released as a result of the emergency release measures is broadly in line with what we would expect.Govt hopes by appointing Gauke - a former Tory Justice Sec (tho admittedly a centrist in today’s party) - they can get cross-party agreement on sentencing reform. But it’s likely Tory leadership candidates will say Labour being soft on criminals, and on the political debate goes. Continue reading...

David Gauke calls for end to ‘bidding war’ between parties as he is appointed to sentencing review – UK politics live

Former Conservative justice sectary to carry out review by Ministry of Justice considering alternatives to sending people to jail

Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, has said that mistakes that affected the first set of early prisoner releases under Labour should have been “ironed out” ahead of the second round take place today.

In an interview with Times Radio, she said that 37 prisoners were released by mistake when around 1,700 inmates were released early in September. She went on:

All 37 were returned to custody, and that operational part of the system actually ended up working exactly as it should.

But those mistakes have now been ironed out, and I’m confident that the releases taking place will now be exactly as we need them to be, and victims who are required to be notified will be notified.

We’ll do a statistics release in due course, as we normally would, on rates of recall and on reoffending in our prison estate.

What I can tell you is our early assessment is that the rates of recall and potential reoffending in the cohort that has been released as a result of the emergency release measures is broadly in line with what we would expect.

Govt hopes by appointing Gauke - a former Tory Justice Sec (tho admittedly a centrist in today’s party) - they can get cross-party agreement on sentencing reform. But it’s likely Tory leadership candidates will say Labour being soft on criminals, and on the political debate goes. Continue reading...