Ken Clarke forced to abandon 50% sentence cuts for guilty pleas

Outcry from Tory right and tabloid press leads to scrapping of plan despite support from Lib Dems David Cameron has forced Kenneth Clarke to abandon all plans for 50% sentence discounts for early guilty pleas after an outcry on the Tory right and in the tabloids. Cameron will announce the change at a Downing Street press conference on Tuesday, when the Ministry of Justice publishes its justice bill containing proposals for tougher community sentences and the introduction of a payment-by-results system to reduce prisoner reoffending. After an outcry, Cameron forced Clarke to withdraw plans for the discount for rapists. There had been speculation that Clarke would manage to keep 50% discounts for some lesser offences, but the justice secretary has lost that battle. Cameron has decided that any reduction in sentences in return for early guilty pleas would undermine his broader commitment to bring sense to sentencing. The current discount is a third, and an extension to 50% would have meant a big drop in the prison population. The decision will mean the Ministry of Justice has to find as much as £100m in extra savings over four years from elsewhere in its budget. Most of the savings will come from a further squeeze on probation. The Treasury has said it is willing to see the justice ministry change the speed at which it finds savings. No official confirmation was available from Downing Street before a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday and Cameron’s press conference. Number 10 argues that trust in the criminal justice system is so low that it would be unable to sell a cut in sentences in return for early guilty pleas. Cameron’s advisers have told him his party is losing its grip on the law and order agenda. The Liberal Democrat leadership, which had promised to side with Clarke, appeared to have accepted defeat. A Lib Dem source said the 50% discount was not a party policy: “We never said we would want to bring it in. We are not totally wedded to it and it is not a big loss.” Clarke’s original green paper proposal was expected to produce savings of £210m a year by reducing the demand for prison places by 6,000. Ministry of Justice officials estimated that this would cut the record 85,000 prison population in England and Wales by 3,000 by the time of the next general election. Other proposals expected on Tuesday include removing the courts’ option of remanding in custody defendants who are unlikely to receive a prison sentence. This would save 1,300 prison places a year. Other proposals include deporting more foreign prisoners (500 places), a new release test for those serving indeterminate sentences for public protection (300 to 600 places), and diverting mentally ill prisoners into community health treatment services (650 prison places). Helen Goodman, the shadow justice minister, said: “Ken Clarke’s plan is to send fewer people to prison and to put more people on community sentences. This cannot work when probation trusts are taking the lion’s share of the Ministry of Justice’s cuts. These cuts will mean that there will be fewer probation officers monitoring fewer offenders less often.” The justice minister, Crispin Blunt, gave a broad hint last week that any need to find further savings in the Ministry of Justice budget as a result of changes to the sentencing package were likely to come from the courts and probation services. Blunt told MPs that probation had so far been “quite significantly protected” from his department’s 23% budget cuts. The plans have provoked fierce opposition, particularly from the solicitors’ organisation, the Law Society. One initial recommendation was to withdraw legal aid in family cases except those involving allegations of domestic violence. Critics warned that this would provide a perverse incentive to exaggerate grievances. Des Hudson, the Law Society chief executive, said he feared that cuts to legal aid could be even deeper than the proposed £350m because less money may be saved by keeping people out of prison. He said: “This means they will come to the budget with sharpened pencils. We will not stand by and see the most vulnerable left with no access to justice.” UK criminal justice Prisons and probation Kenneth Clarke David Cameron Patrick Wintour Allegra Stratton Alan Travis guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 20, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.