Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill

Thank you for recently contacting me about this important matter.

On Monday (5 July 2021), the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill returned to the House of Commons.

I support many important measures in this Bill, including those relating to the Police Covenant, assaults on emergency workers, reform of the DBS scheme, abuse by people in positions of trust and dangerous driving.

Unfortunately, I think the Government has undermined these good measures by including draconian measures relating to free expression and the right to protest; measures that will have an unfair impact on Black, Asian and ethnic minority people; and failing to address the crisis in our police and justice system. In my view, this shows a warped sense of priorities – the Bill does more to protect statues than it does to protect women. I voted to remove parts of the Bill that clampdown on the legitimate right to protest and introduce a new criminal offence for “unauthorised encampments”. Unfortunately, this effort was blocked by Government MPs.

I believe the Bill is a missed opportunity. I think there should be wider measures to protect pandemic heroes, extending protections to shop workers as well as other frontline workers. I therefore voted for an amendment to the Bill to introduce a specific criminal offence of assaulting a retail worker. Disappointingly, the amendment was voted down by Government MPs.

The Bill should have also taken further action to address violence against women and girls is a priority, but it has failed. It should have delivered on inadequate sentences for rape, stalking, and domestic homicide. It should have also addressed unacceptable and intimidating street harassment, and delivered properly resourced domestic abuse services. I voted for amendments to the Bill that would have increased the statutory minimum sentence for rape and allowed for the cross-examination of vulnerable witnesses to be recorded rather than undertaken in court. However, Government MPs also voted against and defeated these amendments.

I will continue to press the Government on all these issues and support further efforts to amend the Bill in the House of Lords.

Yours Sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP