Day: May 28, 2025

Housing minister says previous government left prison system in state of ‘criminal neglect’ amid warnings over early release plan

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended the government’s record on prisons and sentencing in England and Wales after criticism from senior security officials, but said “we can’t build our way out of” prison capacity pressures in the short term.

Earlier today the Times newspaper reported that the heads of the Metropolitan police, MI5 and the National Crime Agency have told the government that plans to release prisoners early could be of “net detriment to public safety.”

What we were handed by the previous government in terms of the state of our prison system was nothing short of criminal neglect. They added just 500 places to the prison estate in their time in office, while at the same time, sentence lengths rose, and as a result, we got the prison population rising by approximately 3,000 people each year.

And we’re heading back to zero capacity. If we run out of capacity, courts will be forced to suspend trials, the police will have to halt arrests, crimes will go unpunished.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has defended the government’s record on prisons and sentencing in England and Wales after police chiefs warned that sentencing reforms could put pressure on frontline services

The government has announced a package of measures it says is designed to streamline the planning system for small and medium sized housebuilders

The Treasury is reported to be in a standoff with some ministers over proposed cuts to public services including policing and social housing

Nigel Farage has been accused of leaving a multibillion-pound black hole at the heart of Reform UK’s spending plans after unveiling a series of expensive policy pledges to be paid for by cutting nonexistent items of government spending

The national water regulator Ofwat has fined Thames Water nearly £123m after two investigations into the company

London mayor Sadiq Khan has called for partial decriminalisation of cannabis possession

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Chancellor’s coalition partners opposing any moves to allow Ukraine to use long-range Taurus missiles

• Zelenskyy bound for Berlin with Merz boxed in

Russia will announce the next round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine soon Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

The neutral status of Ukraine remains one of Russia’s key demands in the peace negotiations, Lavrov added, according to Reuters.

Trump confirmed that if Russia does not stop, sanctions will be imposed. We discussed two main aspects with him – energy and the banking system. Will the US be able to impose sanctions on these two sectors? I would very much like that.

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