The Government has dropped its plan to publish the names and photographs of people sentenced to unpaid work.
Under the proposal, the Probation Service could have publicised the cases of people convicted of minor offences. Local newspapers might also have carried their details.
Shabana Mahmood, then the Justice Secretary, unveiled the idea in September last year alongside the Sentencing Bill. The Bill also shortens the time most prisoners will spend in custody before release. At the time, the Ministry of Justice said the move would show the public that justice was working. It added that it would make community payback more visible and transparent.
Opposition to Clause 35
The measure sat in Clause 35 of the Bill and met strong resistance, which The Guardian first reported. Ian Lawrence, General Secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, warned that it “could have potentially devastating effects on innocent family members, namely children”.
Martin Jones, the Chief Inspector of Probation, said it might act as a “disincentive to rehabilitation”. He also warned that offenders might stop turning up for their unpaid work.
Twenty-four charities and experts signed a letter against the plan. They included leaders of the Howard League for Penal Reform, the Prison Reform Trust, Unlock, Nacro, Children Heard and Seen, St Giles Trust and the Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT). The letter warned that naming and shaming parents could expose children to bullying at school, stigma and threats of violence.
Lords amendment accepted
Opposition peers tabled an amendment to remove Clause 35. During a House of Lords debate on the Bill on 6 January, the Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson, said the Government would accept it.
“I have listened carefully and recognise the issues raised. I am satisfied that the current delivery of unpaid work, bolstered by the wider provisions in the Bill, means that unpaid work will continue to be tough and visible enough without the addition of this specific measure,” he said.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed that it had accepted the amendment. It said the rest of the Bill would go back to the House of Commons without the clause.
A ministry spokesperson said community punishment worked and produced far lower reoffending rates. The spokesperson added that the Bill would toughen community sentences through more tagging and restriction zones. Unpaid work, the spokesperson said, would make offenders give something back to the communities they had harmed.
The Howard League for Penal Reform welcomed the decision through Andrew Neilson, its Director of Campaigns. He said the charity had told Parliament in its briefings that the measure was needlessly harsh. In his view, it risked creating a barrier to rehabilitation. It could also have caused problems for the families of people on unpaid work, especially their children, he said. He added that common sense at the Ministry of Justice had prevailed.
The climbdown emerged at the same time as ministers dropped plans for compulsory digital ID for jobseekers. On 14 January, The Times called the digital ID reversal the 13th major U-turn of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership. Others on its list included dropping higher business rates for pubs, scrapping the two-child benefit cap and reinstating winter fuel payments for millions.
