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By Tony Grew - 21st June 2011
The justice secretary has unveiled his plans for legal aid, rehabilition of prisoners and sentencing policy.
In a statement to the Commons, Ken Clarke denied that he had performed a u-turn over his original plan to allow criminals who plead guilty a sentence reduction of 50 per cent.
"Personally I was particularly impressed by the representations of the senior judiciary, who said that increasing the maximum discount on offer for an early guilty plea at the earliest possible stage might result in the sentence served being too short in some serious cases."
Clarke said he had considered introducing greater discretion for judges, "but we could not make that work".
"We have therefore decided to retain the present system."
He said he wanted to change the discount to 50 per cent to encourage early guilty pleas, helping witnesses and victims of crime.
Clarke denied it was a u-turn, and confirmed that the original proposals set on in a green paper were agreed previously by the cabinet.
He told MPs that the cabinet met again this morning.
"We run a collective government," he said.
Clarke said Labour had left the criminal justice system "in crisis", despite more than 20 acts of parliament and 3,000 new offences.
He told the House that many of those in prison have easy access to drugs and announced the creation of "drug-free wings".
The same people "cycle round the system endlessly", he said.
Clarke announced a "full working week across the prison estate" for prisoners, with the money they earn being ploughed into supporting victims of crime.
He said indeterminate sentences will be abolished, there will be a new law on knife possession that will carry a mandatory prison sentence and the government will consider a ban on squatting.
On legal aid, he said the UK's system is the most extensive in the world and will be reformed.
Squatting, immigration and benefit cases will lose legal aid eligibiity, but special educational needs cases will retain it.
Shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan said the government's plans are driven by a need to cut costs.
He said ministers had "taken heed" of public disquiet a 50 per cent reduction in sentencing,
"A coalition of victims, the judiciary, justice groups, the sentencing council and victims' groups rightly questioned the motivation and effectiveness of this policy," Khan told the House.
He said the policy had been approved by the cabinet yet Downing St are "distancing themselves" from it.
Khan also accused Clarke of "broken promises" on knife crime.
He said cuts to the police, prison and probation services point to a lack of strategy to cut crime.
"The government's policy on crime and justice are in a shambles," he said.
"We've always known you can't trust the Tories on the NHS - now it seems you can't trust the Tories on law and order either."
Alan Beith, chair of the justice select committee, warned against "tough talk" in favour of more appropriate sentencing.
Edward Leigh (Con, Gainsborough) said people would assume all parts of the prison estate are drug-free and to even talk about "drug-free wings" should the "interminably soft attitude of the prison service".
Clarke replied that he shared Leigh's amazement.
"But the fact is that drugs are very widely available in our prisons," he told the House.
David Hanson (Lab, Delyth) questioned Clarke's plans to reduce the number of foreign prisoners and warned that signing agreements with other governments on the issue is "more difficult than it looks".
Clarke said there are 1,000 fewer foreign prisoners now than there were a year ago.
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