7 Conservative U-turns and empty promises on prison reforms

The Lib Dems have demanded that the Conservative Government comes clean about the cost of their ‘dither and delay’ on prison reform as the party points to seven u-turns and empty promises on prison reform since 2015.

This includes a stunning three U-turns on plans to scrap short sentences over the course of just four years and a series of empty promises on deporting foreign offenders and keeping prisoners abroad.

Conservative Ministers have expressed their intention to deport more foreign offenders at least four times since 2015, with it even making it into 2019’s Queen’s Speech. Despite this, deportation numbers have failed to even return to pre-pandemic levels. 

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael MP said:

“A merry-go-round of inexperienced justice ministers have made up prison policy on the fly for far too long. Our prison system is in crisis and in desperate need of real reform. Not the confusion, gimmicks and reheated policies that have already failed on offer from Alex Chalk. 

“Ministers need to come clean about how much taxpayer money has been wasted on short-term sentences since initially promising to dump them in 2019. 

“This is money that could have been funnelled into long-term solutions, like supporting our police service and getting on top of court backlogs. Instead, in the Conservatives’ never ending cycle of u-turns and empty promises, it may as well have been thrown away.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Short Sentences Reform

June 2019 - After previously saying that scrapping short sentences was ‘wrong’, the Government accepted a recommendation from the Justice Committee to move away from 6 month sentences. (U-TURN 1).

Autumn 2019 - In October 2019, then-Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said that abolishing six month sentences would not be “the right way forward” in evidence to the Justice Committee. Short sentences were excluded from the 2019 Conservative manifesto (U-TURN 2).

2023 - New plans brought forward by Alex Chalk after prison capacity crisis (U-TURN 3).

Keeping Prisoners Abroad 

2015 - David Cameron, as Prime Minister, announced plans to transfer prisoners to Jamaica, which were later rejected by the Jamaican government. 

2023 - New plans brought forward by Alex Chalk after prison capacity crisis.

Deporting Foreign National Offenders 

2017 - Theresa May made making it easier to deport foreign national offenders a key goal of her Brexit negotiations.

2019 - Making it easier to remove foreign national offenders was included in the Queen’s speech.

2021 - Dominic Raab wrote about how the Human Rights Act makes it easier for criminals to stop their deportation, implying that scrapping it would be crucial to facilitate the smooth deportation of foreign national offenders.

2023 - New plans brought forward by Alex Chalk after prison capacity crisis. 

Deportation Of Foreign Offenders

The number of deportations of foreign offenders being below pre-pandemic levels can be found here (Figure 5 - 'Enforced returns').

Liberal Democrat Policy

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Conservatives to come clean about how much money has been wasted as they ‘dither and delay’ on prison reform. This includes how much has been spent on prison sentences of 6 months or less since 2019, when the plans to scrap short sentences were first abandoned.

The party has long called for comprehensive prison reform, including improving rehabilitation in prisons and on release, and introducing a presumption against short sentences.