Lord Mayor of London’s Dinner for HM Judges 2024: Lord Chancellor’s Speech
At this annual event for HM Judges the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP spoke about the importance of prisons in maintaining the rule of law.
Political content has been removed from this transcript
My Lord Mayor, Lady Mayoress, my Lady Chief Justice, members of His Majesty’s judiciary, ladies and gentlemen.
I want to thank Michael [Mainelli, Lord Mayor] and Elisabeth [Reuß, Lady Mayoress] for hosting us this evening…
And express my gratitude for their year of service to the City of London…
I am looking forward to welcoming the next Lord Mayor, Alastair King, in a ceremony at the House of Lords on Monday.
As the first Muslim Lord Chancellor, I’m afraid I won’t partake in sipping port from the Loving Cups…
But I am looking forward to the shortbread.
Let me say what an honour it is to be here for the first time as Lord Chancellor.
Unlike most of my 11 predecessors across the last 14 years…
It will not also be my last.
I understand that, in the past, my predecessors have peppered these speeches with humour.
But you may have seen the very serious announcements that I made earlier today…
And so, sadly, this is not a time for levity.
Instead, I want to take this opportunity to explain why I had to make them and what they mean.
But let me start with something that should never be contentious: the rule of law.
My parents came to the UK just a few decades ago…
Leaving a country created by partition.
They were so-called ‘Mangla Dam affectees’…
A people whose land was seized and then flooded by an overbearing and unaccountable state.
But when they came here, to Britain…
They found a home where no one is above the law – not even a government…
And where no one can fall below it either.
It was that inheritance…
And an argumentative disposition…
That led me to the bar…
And left me with an enduring belief in the sanctity of the rule of law…
The most enduring of British values.
That defines who we are and how our country works.
Here, the law rules, not the mob…
And our disagreements are resolved through the careful crafting of arguments.
This Great British value is also of great value to Britain…
Underpinning our economy…
Giving businesses, large and small, the confidence to trade….
In the knowledge that any disputes that arise will be settled fairly.
In every instance, those who come before the courts…
Know that their case will be decided on the facts by learned judges – by you…
And that those judgments will be done without interference or commentary…
From politicians like me or my colleagues.
The oath that I swore when I took this job: to respect the rule of law and defend the independence of the judiciary…
Is one that I take extremely seriously.
It was at the forefront of my mind when I was appointed as Lord Chancellor.
Our prisons were not just in crisis…
They were on the point of collapse.
Weeks away from running out of space altogether.
And had that happened, the consequences are hard to contemplate:
The police unable to make arrests…
Your courts forced to cancel trials.
Justice would have come to a grinding halt.
As my officials explained the enormity of the situation…
My oath rang in my ears.
Would I be the Lord Chancellor who days after swearing to uphold the rule of law…
Oversaw the breakdown of law and order?
I had no choice but to take drastic action…
To make sure the justice system could continue to function…
Anything else would have been a betrayal of my constitutional duty.
I simply could not allow that to happen.
So, I took the decision to bring forward the release point for some prisoners serving standard determinate sentences…
From the usual 50 percent to 40 percent…
Spending the remainder on strict licence conditions in the community.
The first releases happened in September and more took place today.
Given the disgraceful disorder just a few weeks after we took office, the necessity of that decision was soon apparent.
At one point, the prison places remaining in the adult male estate…
Fell into double figures.
And let me place on record, once again, my deepest thanks for all that you did this summer…
Handing down justice, swiftly, to those responsible.
I have no doubt at all that your work brought that disorder to a halt.
The measures that I was forced to take…
To bring our prisons back from the brink…
Were not a long-term solution.
So today, in parliament, I set out a long-term plan for our prisons…
To ensure the scenes that we have witnessed today, of the emergency release of prisoners, are never witnessed again.
And that starts by building more prisons.
But we must be honest:
We cannot build our way out of this crisis.
This isn’t a matter of ideology.
It is simple mathematics.
Every year, our prison population grows by around 4,500 prisoners…
To keep up with that demand would require us to build the equivalent of HMP Birmingham, in my own constituency, four and a half times over, every single year.
We simply cannot build that fast.
For that reason, I have today launched a landmark review of sentencing.
It will have one clear goal:
To ensure we are never again in a position where we have more prisoners than space in our prisons.
The review will follow 3 principles:
First, sentences must punish offenders and protect the public.
For dangerous offenders, prison will always remain the answer.
Punishment and public protection will be this government’s first priority.
There will be dangerous offenders who must always receive a custodial sentence…
And there must always be space in our prisons for them.
The second principle of the review is that sentences must encourage offenders to turn their backs on lives of crime.
The system needs both sticks and carrots.
In this, I will be encouraging the reviewers to learn from those who have succeeded in other jurisdictions.
The third principle of the review will be to expand punishment that offenders receive outside of prison.
There are already ways that we severely constrain offenders…
Limiting their freedom outside of prison.
Those under Home Detention Curfews are, in practice, under a highly effective form of house arrest.
And sobriety tags enforce teetotalism almost as strict as my own.
And we must explore how the next generation of technology can ensure the eyes of the state follow an offender on the outside…
As closely – or even more so – than a prison officer, on the inside.
Moving punishment out of prison – for those who can be safely managed there – has huge benefits:
Outside of prison, offenders can engage in work that pays back the communities and individuals who they have harmed.
And the evidence is clear that those who serve their sentences outside prison are far less likely to reoffend…
Making our streets safer…
And reducing the cost to society of reoffending, which has been most recently valued at over £22bn a year.
I am pleased to say that the review will be led by a former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke…
A highly regarded Minister who served in multiple roles across government…
And who I know earned the trust and respect of many of you in the room this evening.
I will work with him to assemble a panel of reviewers who will draw together deep expertise and experience in the criminal justice system…
Including judicial colleagues.
And the review will take a bipartisan and evidence-based look at an issue that has – for far too long – been a political football, booted around by both sides.
David Gauke will report back with his recommendations in the Spring…
And I look forward to discussing them with the senior judiciary then.
I know that for many in this room, it may seem like this government is preoccupied with what is happening in our prisons…
Where an acute crisis could easily shroud the great challenges that we face across our justice system.
I want you to know that I fully recognise all of those challenges…
I know our courts backlogs are at historic highs…
That, for far too many victims, justice delayed now means justice denied.
I know you are working under immense pressure…
In the delivery of justice…
And in the defence of the rule of law.
This government will support you.
Speaking before a budget, my lips are – by necessity – sealed.
But let me say this:
This government will pursue the hard work of restoring and reforming our justice system.
We will support you in delivering justice more swiftly…
We will promote this country’s standing as a global beacon of the rule of law…
And we will back our legal sector, which is so vital to this government’s mission to kickstart economic growth.
All this, I must acknowledge, will take time.
I know that you have grown weary of the merry-go-round of Lord Chancellors…
Holding this ancient office for the blink of an eye…
With every judges’ dinner yet another introduction…
More warm words and bromides from the new Lord Chancellor…
Who promises the world but goes out with a whimper.
This time, it will be different.
I am a Lord Chancellor who is here for the long haul.
I won’t hide the difficulty of the job at hand.
But nor will I resile from the hard work of pursuing it.
I will, I must admit, need your support along the way.
When times are good…
And when we agree…
We will support each other.
And when we disagree, as I am sure we will on occasion…
We must be frank with each other, albeit in private…
Always critical friends in the pursuit of a shared endeavour.
As I mentioned earlier, the rule of law runs strongly through my background.
My parents did not study Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus and the Bill of Rights, as I would go on to do.
But they had a strong sense when they arrived here from rural Kashmir…
That this country was different…
Because it has rules to which all people are subject.
That inheritance from my parents only grew stronger…
As I went on to practise and was then elected to Parliament.
My personal commitment to the rule of law is something you should never doubt.
I hope I have shown already that I am willing to take the difficult and even unpopular decisions required to ensure that justice can be done in this country.
It is a habit I intend to keep…
As we, together, uphold the rule of law and promote justice…
Through a period of great challenge, but also of great opportunity.
It is an honour to be here with you this evening, as we embark upon it.
Which leaves me only to thank our gracious hosts, who have brought us here together…
So let’s raise our glasses and toast:
The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress!
Thank you.