Justice secretary refuses to guarantee that Gove’s bill, which was at heart of Cameron’s last Queen’s speech, will go ahead

Theresa May’s new government has pulled back from Michael Gove’s plan to introduce a major prisons bill, which formed the social reform centrepiece of David Cameron’s last Queen’s speech four months ago.

The new justice secretary, Liz Truss, sparked astonishment among MPs when she refused to guarantee to the Commons justice select committee that the government would proceed with Gove’s legislation.

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When asked by the justice committee chairman if the bill was going to go ahead, she replied: “We are looking at that at the moment. It will be in the plan … I am not committing to any specific piece of legislation at this stage.”

Truss said it was essential that the prison reform programme would work and be deliverable, and implied that there was not yet any detailed Ministry of Justice plan to implement it.

“It is a bit difficult to say at this early stage. I want to lay out a plan. The pace of what is happening on the ground will not slow. The key thing is that it has to be deliverable and we have to do things in the right order. That is what I am looking at,” said Truss.

“I am working on a delivery plan at the moment, which we do not currently have.

“My predecessor was specifically focused on reform prisons, which I think are an excellent idea. I am looking at the overall system in which they operate as well … I am not committing to any specific piece of legislation at this stage. That will be in the plan.”

The Conservative chairman of the committee, Bob Neill, expressed astonishment that Truss could not guarantee the centrepiece of the Queen’s speech, asking: “Are we not going to get one? It is surprising that you can’t tell us whether it will happen in this session.”



Gove promised that a prison reform green paper would be published this autumn and a major prison and courts reform bill introduced early next year. He announced the creation of six “reform” prisons, including Wandsworth in London, but the promised autonomy for their governors is severely restricted by current legislation.

The decision to pause Gove’s prison plans and test whether they can actually work represents a major departure by May from Gove’s programme, which was strongly endorsed by Cameron in a major speech.

In her first appearance before the justice select committee, Truss made clear she would not “arbitrarily” cut the current 85,000 prison population to deal with budget pressures.

She did commit to opening five new prisons by 2020 but was not able to say how much of the £1.3bn cost of building them would have to come from the capital receipts of selling existing dilapidated inner-city prisons.

The justice secretary also declined to give further details of the new specialist “jihadi” units in maximum security jails saying only that they would hold a small number of the most subversive prisoners. But she refused to say how many units were planned or how many they would hold.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The government remains totally committed to legislating on prison reform and will come forward with plans in due course.

“We also remain committed to legislating on reform of our court system to provide a better and more efficient service. Again, we will come forward with plans in due course.”

Labour’s Jo Stevens, the shadow justice minister, said Truss’s appearance showed Conservative prison policy was in tatters. “Urgent action is long overdue and the prison reform bill was the central piece of this year’s lightweight Queen’s speech, but today she refused to confirm its fate,” Stevens said.

“By failing to tackle the prisons crisis which developed on their watch, the Tories have yet again demonstrated that they have no plan for the challenges this country faces.”

Truss also faced criticism from the Liberal Democrats’ justice spokesman, Jonathan Marks, who said the government had “dropped” its prison reform agenda. He said: “It is a mark of this reckless, divisive and uncaring government that they are pushing full steam ahead with their plans to scrap our Human Rights Act in a bid to fulfil an ill-conceived manifesto promise whilst postponing much needed prison reform.



“Our prisons are overcrowded and England and Wales continue to have the highest imprisonment in western Europe. This has led to increased violence in our prisons and the highest number of deaths in prison on record. If this government does not look seriously at reducing the prison population there will be a crisis on our hands.”