I rise to support Lords amendment 1, commonly known as Harper’s Law, and to take this opportunity to welcome a number of key reforms introduced by the Bill while also highlighting areas in which I think we should go further.
Let me begin by commenting on what I consider to be the all too frequent yawning gap between what the public, on whose behalf justice is delivered, see as justice, and what the judicial system delivers. I do so conscious that the debate on sentencing has been polarised and distorted by a sort of intellectual snobbery towards anyone who makes the case for longer sentencing. Anyone who mentions this in polite circles, or to any number of think-tanks or charities involved in justice reform, will be met with variations of what is essentially the same disparaging attitude: “Oh, you must be part of the hang ’em and flog ’em brigade”—as if it were not valid or legitimate to say that justice is a social good, that it is served by punishment as well as rehabilitation, and that in some cases serving the social good is better achieved by an emphasis on punishment.
I noted with interest the comment from the family of Sarah Everard that the fact that the perpetrator was given a whole life term, rather than just a life sentence with a minimum period, was the only thing that gave them comfort. We do not often see that narrative in a documentary or a policy paper about justice. Do we really think that that was because the perpetrator was a policeman, although that was the reason in law that he was given a whole-life order—that if he had not been a policeman and had killed Sarah, her family would have been satisfied with a life sentence without a whole-life order? Of course it was not, I believe that their feelings would reflect those of most people who saw their loved one brutally murdered, whatever the circumstances, although very few of them would see a whole-life order as the outcome.
The term “life sentence” is misleading and is often misreported, and in my view it should be reformed. We must remember that the origins of our justice system were a result of our society saying, “You, as the individual and the family, cannot deliver your own justice. The courts will do it on your behalf.” The courts are therefore a servant of the public, and have a responsibility to ensure, at the very least, a broad alignment with what they would want. At present, when it comes to serious offences and hardened criminals, I do not think that they do. That is not to disparage judges; they operate largely within a framework of precedent which they cannot change, so we must recognise that it will take more intervention from us to break some of those precedents.
I would like to highlight child sex offences as another area where there is a yawning gap between what offenders are likely to receive and what the public would consider to be justice. This is not to say that rehabilitation and
diversion are not important, and I welcome the measures in this Bill that will help to achieve that. Ultimately, in the longer term, that will lead to fewer victims of crime, but it will not happen overnight and we must ensure that justice is delivered to families and victims in the meantime. This Bill makes huge gains in that regard.
9.30 pm
Amendment 1 comes as a result of the relentless campaigning by the widow of Andrew Harper, Lissie Harper, who took a terrible experience and tried to turn it into something positive in memory of Andrew. I pay tribute to her today. Our emergency service workers deserve the greatest possible protection and their families deserve to see justice done.
Tony’s law is another example of where we are tipping the scales more firmly towards justice, and I pay tribute to Tony and his parents. Our changes to early release from halfway to two thirds, and to sentencing for causing death by dangerous driving are other examples of where the Government are making progress, but we must go further.
I want to draw particular attention to where we can go further in relation to the measures to introduce a new whole-life tariff for child murder. Most of our constituents would ask why that tariff is not applied in the first place, so I welcome the change, but I am concerned that the requirement for the offence to be one of significant premeditation is an unnecessarily high hurdle that will leave our constituents wondering what we have really achieved the next time we see a tragic case like that of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and find that the new law does not apply. I ask the Government to look closely at addressing this gap at the next opportunity, and I would be grateful if the Minister could respond to that point tonight.
I also welcome the changes around protests and illegal encampments. There has been a totally unjustified and hysterical campaign about these measures, but the overwhelming majority of my constituents will see them as what they are: necessary and proportionate updates to our laws. I lose a little bit of respect for Opposition Members with legal training every time they make arguments that fly in the face of well-understood legal concepts, pretending that the ordinary meaning of words is the same as their use in the law and ignoring the well-established approach of our common-law system and its ability to refine and further define concepts such as significant damage, disruption, or distress that were introduced in encampment laws. I note that some of the Opposition Members making those arguments also seem to be the ones most concerned with accusations of undermining the judiciary. To have so little faith in the courts’ ability to define the law is pretty undermining in itself.
Through this Bill, the Government, the Home Secretary and the Justice Secretary are delivering long overdue changes to our justice system—changes that I welcome and I know my constituents welcome—but we are still a long way off where we need to be, and I hope to keep pushing the Government to go further.