§ 21. Mrs. Helen Brinton (Peterborough)What proposals he has to ensure that there is an effective range of community sentences available to the courts. [40283]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Ms Joyce Quin)The Crime and Disorder Bill contains proposals that will increase both the range and the effectiveness of community sentences available to the courts. The effectiveness of community sentences will also be enhanced by implementing recommendations from the probation inspectorate and by the lessons to be drawn from the community sentence demonstration projects, which have recently been conducted in Teesside and Shropshire.
§ Mrs. BrintonI thank my hon. Friend for her reply. Does she agree that prison is not the answer in every respect, and that the answer could be to build public confidence in community sentencing and to take a judicious view of electronic tagging? With the range of measures available, we might have an effective alternative to prison.
§ Ms QuinThe new community orders in the Crime and Disorder Bill and an increased use of electronic monitoring will provide sentences that can be used for people who have committed crimes but for whom prison is not the most appropriate form of punishment. The probation service could do a great deal—indeed, probation services around the country have shown themselves willing to do that work—to learn from the "what works" initiative and to introduce challenging, effective and demanding community punishments.