Sentencing bill plan for fewer offenders to go to jail will undermine VAWG strategy, victims’ commissioner claims
Here are some more extracts from the statement about the VAWG strategy issued by Claire Waxman, the incoming victims’ commissioner for England and Wales. Here comments about funding were quoted at 9.25am. But other points are worth noting.
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Waxman says that, while elements of the plan are welcome, it remains to be seen if, overall, it will provide what is needed.
While many individual initiatives are welcome, it remains to be seen whether the overall Strategy provides the scale, pace, and leadership required to match the government’s ambition – and truly tackle this emergency.
In terms of specific measures, the national rollout of the Child House model – pioneered by Lighthouse in London – is a welcome step I have long called for. It marks vital progress towards delivering on the recommendations of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
There is more about the Child House model here, and more on the Lighthouse here.
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She also welcomes the expansion of Operation Soteria, a police/CPS partnership to improve the prosecution of rape and serious sexual offences.
I also welcome initiatives such as the expansion of Operation Soteria to reduce the re-traumatisation too many victims experience in the trial process. Long after my 2019 rape review, ‘end-to-end’ reform of the justice system for serious sexual offences is finally in sight – but only if the government now delivers on its commitment to independent legal advice for rape survivors, and tackles the long waits for justice.
Without clear, sustainable investment and cross-government leadership, I am concerned we run the risk of the Strategy amounting to less than the sum of its parts; a wish-list of tactical measures rather than a bold, unifying strategic framework.
The Sentencing Bill underlines this lack of cohesion. Victims need confidence that the system will protect them, yet under the proposals in the bill, the reality is that many abusers will avoid prison entirely or benefit from early release – undermining the very safety this Strategy seeks to guarantee.
Key events
Jess Phillips’s statement to MPs about the VAWG strategy will start after noon, after the business statement is over. After that, there will be two more ministerial statements – from Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, on Ukraine, and from Alison McGovern, the local government minister, on local government reorganisation.
Crown court backlog for England and Wales rises to almost 80,000
The crown court backlog in England and Wales has risen to nearly 80,000 cases in a new record high, PA Media reports. PA says:
Data published this morning showed the open caseload was 79,619 at the end of September, up 2% from 78,096 at the end of June.
It is also up 9% from the same point a year earlier, according to Ministry of Justice figures.
The number of cases open for a year or more passed 20,000 for the first time at 20,155 at the end of September, which is up 25% year on year and up 6% from the end of June.
Open caseload refers to the number of outstanding cases.
Ministry of Justice projections published earlier this month suggested the crown court backlog could reach a high estimate of 125,000 by the end of this parliament under current conditions. David Lammy, the deputy PM and justice secretary, says his plans to limit jury trials will help to reduce this.
Commenting on the figures today, Lammy said:
This Government inherited a system on the brink of collapse.
Victims’ lives are being put on hold as cases are kicked several years into the future.
The scale of this crisis means tinkering at the edges is not enough. We simply cannot spend our way out of this mess – only fundamental reform can give the brave survivors of crime fairer and faster justice.
Here is Jessica Elgot’s full story about Keir Starmer planning to hold the king’s speech more or less straight after the elections next year for the Scottish parliament, the Senedd in Wales and English councils. They take place on Thursday 7 May.
Henry Zeffman from the BBC says the king’s speech will take place either on Tuesday 12 May or Wednesday 13 May.
Tories propose re-allocating £17bn in government spending for defence, mostly from net zero projects
Kemi Badenoch has vowed to scrap green spending to pay for a multibillion-pound fund to rearm the UK, PA Media report. PA says:
Accusing Labour of failing to invest in the UK’s armed forces, the Conservative leader has proposed reallocating £17bn to “accelerate” Britain’s “war readiness”.
She said: “We must ensure our armed forces are equipped and ready to defend our country, because defence of the realm must be the first priority of any government.”
The money includes £11bn from the national wealth fund that is currently allocated to net zero projects, with the fund itself turned into a new national defence and resilience bank.
Another £6bn over three years would be taken from the government’s research and development budget and given to the Ministry of Defence to invest in new technology.
Alongside investment from the private sector, the Tories said they expected their plan to mobilise £50bn for defence.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said the money would “deliver the drone revolution our armed forces require” and create a “more lethal” military.
As well as investing in UK defence firms, the money is expected to be used to build more resilient supply chains, reducing Britain’s reliance on “hostile states” such as China.
Labour has previously pledged to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from 2027 and to 3% by the end of the decade.
The Tories claim that, together, these measures would fund a £50b “sovereign defence fund”. In a briefing, this is how they explain it.
-£6bn (£2bn per annum over the course of this parliament) would be reallocated from the Research and Development (R&D) budget in the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology to the MOD. It is well known that defence technology and innovation can have spillover effects into other sectors, like communications and transport, causing a multiplier effect.
-£11bn ringfenced from the national wealth fund (NWF) – which will become the national defence and resilience bank (NDRB). This funding is currently allocated to many of Ed Miliband’s costly eco-projects. We would leave the remainder of financing in the fund for national resilience like water and transport.
-Approximately £33bnn of private finance via NDRB mobilisation. The existing NWF target of mobilising £3 of private investment for every £1 of public investment would remain for the SDF – so this could unlock tens of billions of pounds in private investment.
In response, a Labour party spokesperson said:
The Tories are gaslighting the British public on defence.
These are yet more fantasy figures from a Conservative party that cut defence by £12bn in their first five years in power. Look at their record: their time in office starved our forces of funding, drove down morale and left Britain less safe. They did it before, and they’d do it again.
Labour MPs denounce plan to limit jury trials as ‘madness’ and likely to ‘cause more problems than it solves’
Almost 40 Labour MPs have signed an open letter to Keir Starmer describing the government’s plans to limit access to jury trials as madness.
In the letter, organised by Karl Turner, who is normally a loyalist, the MPs say:
The drastic restriction of the right to trial by jury is not a silver bullet. To limit a fundamental right for what will make a marginal difference to the backlog, if any, is madness and will cause more problems than it solves.
The government has a working majority of 167 and so, even if all 39 MPs who have signed the letter were to vote against the government when it legislates for its plans next year, they would not be enough to see it defeated.
But there are other Labour MPs who share the concerns of this group, and the government is already under strong pressure to a sunset clause on the plans – meaning the jury trial restrictions were time-limited for just a few years – as a compromise.
Ben Quinn has more on the story here.
Schools in England warning of rise in misogyny towards teachers, says Phillips
Schools have warned of growing misogyny from pupils towards teachers and a lack of avenues to seek help about concerns over sexually aggressive behaviour, Jess Phillips, the VAWG minister, has said. Jessica Elgot has the story.
Sentencing bill plan for fewer offenders to go to jail will undermine VAWG strategy, victims’ commissioner claims
Here are some more extracts from the statement about the VAWG strategy issued by Claire Waxman, the incoming victims’ commissioner for England and Wales. Here comments about funding were quoted at 9.25am. But other points are worth noting.
-
Waxman says that, while elements of the plan are welcome, it remains to be seen if, overall, it will provide what is needed.
While many individual initiatives are welcome, it remains to be seen whether the overall Strategy provides the scale, pace, and leadership required to match the government’s ambition – and truly tackle this emergency.
In terms of specific measures, the national rollout of the Child House model – pioneered by Lighthouse in London – is a welcome step I have long called for. It marks vital progress towards delivering on the recommendations of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse.
There is more about the Child House model here, and more on the Lighthouse here.
-
She also welcomes the expansion of Operation Soteria, a police/CPS partnership to improve the prosecution of rape and serious sexual offences.
I also welcome initiatives such as the expansion of Operation Soteria to reduce the re-traumatisation too many victims experience in the trial process. Long after my 2019 rape review, ‘end-to-end’ reform of the justice system for serious sexual offences is finally in sight – but only if the government now delivers on its commitment to independent legal advice for rape survivors, and tackles the long waits for justice.
Without clear, sustainable investment and cross-government leadership, I am concerned we run the risk of the Strategy amounting to less than the sum of its parts; a wish-list of tactical measures rather than a bold, unifying strategic framework.
The Sentencing Bill underlines this lack of cohesion. Victims need confidence that the system will protect them, yet under the proposals in the bill, the reality is that many abusers will avoid prison entirely or benefit from early release – undermining the very safety this Strategy seeks to guarantee.
Starmer planning to hold next king’s speech soon after May elections
Jessica Elgot
Jessica Elgot is the Guardian’s deputy political editor.
Keir Starmer is planning for a new king’s speech after the crunch May elections as a reset moment for the government amid speculation over the prime minister’s future.
Senior sources in parliament said planning was under way to end the parliamentary session the week after local elections in England, making it a significantly longer session than normal, and nearly two years since Labour first set out its legislative agenda.
Labour is facing a potentially devastating set of results in England, Wales and Scotland, with the possible loss of hundreds of council seats to Reform and the Greens in England as well as defeat for the first time in Wales, where Plaid Cymru and Reform are leading in the polls.
In Scotland, the Scottish National party are polling on course to maintain power despite pre-election hopes that Labour’s Anas Sarwar could become first minister. Critics of Starmer’s leadership have repeatedly named May as the moment when would-be leadership challengers could call for him to stand aside.
The last king’s speech was in July 2024, weeks after Labour won the general election, but a combination of parliamentary rebellions, international and economic turmoil and defeats in the House of Lords has meant the government needs more time to complete the legislation.
The relatively late end to the session will raise some hopes among supporters of assisted dying that it may be possible to complete the bill, which will fall if it does not pass by the end of the session. They expect many opponents will try to use procedure to talk out the private members’ bill and bar it from progressing.
Further changes to the House of Lords are among a number of measures expected in the king’s speech, including introducing a mandatory retirement age of 80.
Potential lack of funding for plan to prevent violence against women ‘deeply concerning’, says victims’ commissioner
Good morning. The government is finally publishing its violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy. In its manifesto Labour said it wanted to halve VAWG within a decade, and so this is a vital policy area. Publication of the strategy has been delayed three times. In the Commons on Monday, in response to an urgent question on this, Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and VAWG, said the delays were down to her. “It is entirely my fault because, with every iteration, the strategy was not ambitious enough. I could have done it more quickly, and then it would not have been as good,” she said.
Although the document is being published today, the VAWG strategy is being promoted via a budget-style, week-long media strategy. We have already had announcements form the Home Office covering extra spending for abuse victims, specialist NHS help for abuse victims, and all police forces introducing specialist rape and sexual offence teams.
And, overnight, the government has been briefing on plans to tackle misogynist behaviour in schools. Alexandra Topping and Rajeev Syal have the details here.
Phillips has been giving interviews this morning and she has described these measures as particularly important because, while other aspects of the strategy deal with the consequences of VAWG, this aspect deals with prevention. She told Times Radio:
I’m a bit sick, I have to say, as somebody who’s campaigned on this for many years, of just trying to put nicer plasters onto ever growing scars, and so we’ve got to – the government is really, really focused on the prevention.
But how good is the strategy overall? Claire Waxman, the incoming victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, has issued a statement saying that, while the plan contains many welcome measures, potential lack of funding is “deeply concerning”. She says she is worried it could end up as “less than the sum of its parts”.
She says:
Ultimately, the success of this strategy hinges on whether delivery partners are equipped to succeed. Early indications around funding are deeply concerning. The strategy introduces welcome measures in schools and the NHS which will, by design, drive up disclosures and referrals to police and victim services. Yet frontline services are already overstretched and struggling to meet need, and the criminal justice system remains in crisis.
Funding is critical. Driving up demand without increasing capacity puts victims at risk and threatens to destabilise the very partners the strategy relies upon. This concern is heightened by the lack of meaningful consultation. Victim services are not an optional extra to this strategy – they must be the backbone of it.
Without clear, sustainable investment and cross-government leadership, I am concerned we run the risk of the strategy amounting to less than the sum of its parts; a wish-list of tactical measures rather than a bold, unifying strategic framework.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The Ministry of Justice publishes its latest figures on the courts backlog.
9.30am: Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
11am: Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, and John McDonnell, the Labour MP, speak at a press conference held by relatives and supporters of the Palestine Action-lined hunger strikers.
After 11.30am: Jess Phillips, the VAWG minister, makes a statement to MPs about the government’s plan to tackle violence against women and girls.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in east Hampshire.
Noon: The Bank of England announces its decision on interest rates.
The government is also making announcements via 13 written ministerial statements, covering police funding, the cost of the government’s response to the Covid inquiry, the Minette Batters review of farm profitability, and the inquiry into conditions at the Manston asylum centre.
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