Justice secretary said there is a ‘moral case’ for getting people into work when asked about the chancellor’s reported plans
In an interview last week Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, was evasive when asked if the crime and policing bill she was publishing would lead to more people going to jail. The interviewer said that the legislation created 18 new offences, and suggested that, if the Home Office was locking more people up, that would undermine the Ministry of Justice’s efforts to reduce prison overcrowding.
Cooper said there were some measures in the bill that would reduce offending. But it sounded as if she was reluctant to answer the question because she did not want to admit that the interviewer had a point about prison numbers.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said the bill would address an “epidemic of street theft”, including a rise in phone and bag snatching and shoplifting.
However, an impact assessment of the bill published by the government last week revealed that the new offences would lead to 5,000 additional police-recorded crimes each year. This would lead to more than 400 prosecutions and 300 convictions, resulting in an extra 13-55 additional people going to prison each year.
Yvette Cooper’s own assessment shows her bill is a total gimmick. Labour’s attempts to con the British public they’re tough on crime have been exposed. There were 84,000 phone thefts last year. Locking up 12 more people a year isn’t going to do anything to end the theft epidemic.
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