Latest news with #RobertBuckland
The Independent
a day ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Government's smoking ban ‘risks breaching post-Brexit deal'
A proposed UK smoking ban, supported by Keir Starmer, risks breaching the post-Brexit Windsor Framework, according to former Tory justice secretary Robert Buckland. The ban, which would make it illegal for anyone born after 2008 to buy tobacco, conflicts with EU law requiring tobacco to remain legal for adults over 18 in Northern Ireland under the Framework. Buckland warns that applying the ban to Northern Ireland would breach EU law, while excluding it would fracture the UK's internal market, leading to a breach of the signed treaty. He urges the Government to pause the Bill and either negotiate an exemption for Northern Ireland or remove it from the Bill's scope to avoid a legal and constitutional crisis. Despite these warnings, the Government believes the measures drafted in the Bill are consistent with its obligations under the Windsor Framework.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
UK smoking ban risks breaching post-Brexit deal, ex-Tory justice secretary warns
Keir Starmer 's flagship smoking ban risks breaching a key post-Brexit deal with the European Union and is 'heading straight for the courts', a former Tory justice secretary has warned. Robert Buckland says he was initially supportive of the plans, which will see Britain ban smoking for an entire generation. But now he says the government 'must hit pause' or risk a legal car crash. Under the plans anyone currently aged 15 or younger will never be able to buy cigarettes legally, as the UK slowly becomes a smoke-free country. The idea was launched with great fanfare by Rishi Sunak, but enthusiastically backed by Labour when the Tories were kicked out of power last summer. But now Sir Robert warns the policy risks breaching another key piece of legislation signed by Mr Sunak, the Windsor Framework with the EU. It is designed to deal with the post-Brexit problem about what to do at Northern Ireland 's border, the scene of many atrocities during the Troubles. There were fears that Brexit could make the land border between NI and the Republic of Ireland a so-called 'hard border' again, with checkpoints that risked becoming the focus of future attacks. In a bid to avoid that the UK and the EU agreed a system under which, when it comes to goods, NI aligns with EU laws. Sir Robert warns that EU law therefore requires that tobacco remain legal for adults over 18 in NI. But the new Bill would criminalise its sale to anyone born after 2008 across the UK, including in NI. Sir Robert says the disconnect means the Bill, in its current form, is on a collision course with international law and ministers are sleepwalking into a constitutional and legal car crash. 'If the Bill applies in Northern Ireland, we breach EU law. If it doesn't, we fracture the UK's internal market. Either way, we're in breach of the treaty we signed just last year,' he said. He added: 'The Windsor Framework is not political window dressing, it's international law. And if Parliament pushes ahead with this Bill as-is, we are heading straight for the courts. 'Northern Ireland's courts have already shown they will strike down UK laws that conflict with the Framework. That is not theoretical, it's real, it's recent, and it's relevant. 'The government must hit pause. Either negotiate an exemption… or remove Northern Ireland from the scope of the Bill. Anything else is reckless.' 'The right to buy legal goods like tobacco is protected under the Windsor Framework and the Good Friday Agreement. Strip that away, and the government is staring down the barrel of a serious legal defeat.' The Department of Health has been approached for comment.
The National
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Will London be safer this summer as a result of crime sentencing changes?
Britain's street crime will intensify following a tranche of reforms aimed at easing overcrowding in prisons, The National has been told. With jails dangerously crammed, the Ministry of Justice has decided on a series of changes to prison tariffs that will allow violent criminals and sexual offenders to be released early. Fewer criminals would be put behind bars and more will serve sentences in the community, while judges could be given more flexibility to impose punishments such as football or driving bans. Short sentences of less than 12 months would also be scrapped, apart from exceptional circumstances, after an independent sentencing review led by former justice secretary David Gauke recommended an overhaul. With the probation service under severe stress, failing to lock up criminals posed a 'real danger' on the streets of London and risked other cities becoming crime hotspots, said Robert Buckland, who was the Justice Secretary from 2019 to 2021. 'I really don't think that we should be letting out violent and sexual offenders earlier without very good justification,' he said. 'This should not just be for good behaviour, but concrete evidence that they're making progress and that they don't present the risk of reoffending.' The current Labour government has condemned the 14 years of Conservative rule during which it claims just 500 prison places were added while the prison population nearly doubled. The latest projections showed that jails will be 'bust within months' and 9,500 places short by early 2028 without drastic action, said Shabana Mahmood, the current justice secretary. Latest figures show the prison population in England and Wales is 88,103, just 418 below the record of 88,521, which was reached on September 6. The only way to end the crisis was to build more prisons, with the government promising £4.7 billion to make 14,000 places by 2031 in what it promises will be 'the largest prison expansion since the Victorian era'. 'If our prisons collapse, courts are forced to suspend trials, the police must halt their arrests, crime goes unpunished, criminals run amok and chaos reigns,' Ms Mahmood warned. 'We face the breakdown of law and order in this country.' When the government came to power in July last year it inherited dangerously overcrowded jails just as race riots broke out across the country leading to more than 200 convictions. This forced the new government to give early release to a number of non-violent offenders to free up space. That was a temporary measure and led to Mr Gauke being asked by Labour to undertake to a full review that reported on Thursday. The government has now accepted his recommendation to reduce time served for those convicted of 'standard determinate sentences', such as burglary or drug offences it also includes certain violent and sexual offences, but not rape. Those criminals will now serve just one third of the sentence in jail, a third on probation and the final period without supervision. But Mr Buckland argued that there was a 'danger of people out in the community who aren't going to be properly supervised' and the lack of supervision element 'rings alarm bells'. His concern was that on the streets of London there was now an increased chance of dangerous violent reoffending, such as muggings and sexual offences 'that the public need protection from.' Mobile phone theft in London has reached what has been described as 'epidemic' levels, prompting the Met Police to step up undercover operations. Police data shows that in the year to April, 75, 105 mobile phones were stolen across London, an increase of 13 per cent on the previous year. The new proposals, said David Jones, the former Conservative Welsh Secretary, were 'manifestly not making the streets of London or the UK safer' and that 'arguably, it's going to make things a lot worse'. He was also concerned about the early release scheme, 'because prison should be a deterrent and the longer the sentence the bigger the deterrent'. Mr Buckland also argued that the probation services were 'under huge pressure' and its chief had warned that 'without proper resourcing this won't work'. The former minister pointed to the work that the probation service did for young offenders in recent years that has seen the under 18 prison population plummet from more than 3,000 to just 500. The government has now pledged that it will increase funding for the probation service, rising by £700 million to £2.3 billion in three years. However, think tanks in favour of prison reform suggested that early release could well lead to less repeat offending. 'The three things that stop people reoffending are family relationships, secure housing and employment,' Andrea Coomber, a barrister and chief executive of the Howard League, told The National. She argued that to reduce crime it was better to have people serving 'an element of their sentence in prison and then the rest in the community' where they can be supported. 'The 'tough on crime' thing sounds great, but it doesn't work,' she added. 'A prison governor recently said to me, punishment sounds fantastic, and I wish it worked, but unfortunately, it doesn't because punishing people is inherently inconsistent with rehabilitating them.' The Prison Reform Trust's chief executive Pia Sinha argued that the reforms were a 'once in a generation opportunity' to reset sentencing and reduce reoffending. He supported the government's move away from giving sentences under 12 months labelling them 'pointless short spells in custody' that blocked cells and did not reduce reoffending. However, Mr Jones argued that the 12 month rule was 'basically a charter for shoplifters' that was telling thieves 'you can pinch as much as you want and you will not be put in prison'. Mr Buckland suggested it would take just 'one crisis' with a serious reoffending to occur for the public to turn against the early releases and 'the aims of these reforms will be utterly lost in an understandable backlash'.
