Criminal Justice and Courts Bill — New Clause 38 — Release of Prisoners Liable for Deportation on Resettlement Licences — 12 May 2014 at 20:30

The majority of MPs voted not to prevent prisoners liable for deportation from being released on resettlement licences.

MPs were considering the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill^[1]. The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was;

• Resettlement licence: deportees
• No prisoner serving a sentence for which he is liable for deportation can be eligible for resettlement licence.

MP Philip Davies who proposed the new clause spoke during the debate to explain his reasoning^[2]:

• If someone is liable for deportation following an offence, I do not understand what grounds there can possibly be for releasing them on resettlement licence. The whole justification for resettlement day and night release is that it is supposed to help prisoners reintegrate into the area by re-establishing links with family and the local community. To be honest, I am not a fan of that at the best of times—given that many offenders spend so little of their sentence in prison anyway, I cannot believe that so many of them are not in prison when we think they are—but giving a resettlement licence to someone liable to be deported is utter madness. I cannot for one second understand the logic of it and I would be amazed if anybody could find any support for the idea from any quarter.

Minister Jeremy Wright MP responded to say^[3]:

• The point I am making in relation to new clause 38 is that there is a distinction between those who are liable for deportation and those who are actually going to be deported. For those who are going to be deported, my hon. Friend is absolutely right that there is no justification whatever for release on temporary licence or transfer to open conditions. For those who are not going to be deported or where there is a reasonable chance they will not be, however, we have to think about the same balance of risks I described to him earlier. That is the logic for making the distinction I sought to make, and explains why I cannot accept the blanket way in which his new clause is phrased.

==

• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill
• [2] Philip Davies MP (Shipley, Conservative), House of Commons, 12 May 2014
• [3] Jeremy Wright MP (Kenilworth and Southam, Conservative), House of Commons, 12 May 2014

Debate in Parliament | Source |