Robert Buckland:

Tougher punishments for desecrating monuments will ensure that courts can take real action against it

Like most people, I have been appalled to see pictures in the newspapers and on television of violence and vandalism at recent protests. However noble a cause, there can be no justification for assaulting police officers, daubing political slogans on the statue of Churchill or clambering on top of the Cenotaph to burn the Union flag.

Those who do so debase their cause and fill people who may otherwise sympathise with a sense of revulsion. The fact that people feel able to do this with impunity, even in the presence of cameras, suggests the law as it stands is inadequate.

As promised in the 2019 Conservative Manifesto, the Ministry of Justice will shortly consult on doubling the maximum sentence for assaulting workers in emergency services such as police officers, firefighters and paramedics. They deserve extra protection when they are serving the public. But, we also need to make sure the laws around criminal damage are appropriate. Presently, this area of law is broad and surprisingly complicated, with penalties ranging from fines to life imprisonment.

In cases where there is no threat to life and no arson is involved, the maximum sentence a judge can hand down depends largely on the value of damage done. If it is less than £5,000, the case will end in the magistrates’ court with a maximum sentence of 3 months. But if it is more than £5,000, the case can go up to the Crown Court and a sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment can be handed down.

This means that a vandal who breaks into a cemetery and destroys nine headstones worth £500 each can only be sentenced to three months imprisonment. This can’t be right, especially when so many of our war memorials are modest and of little monetary value. But, they clearly have enormous symbolic value, which is not something that can be measured in pounds, shillings and pence.

I’ve seen from my own community the hurt and insult that can be caused when local war graves are damaged. This is not just an attack on our heritage, it is also an attack on our values of hard-won freedom and democracy and an insult to the memory of those who gave their lives for us.

This can’t be allowed to stand. Next week, a Bill backed by more than 100 Conservative MPs creating a specific offence of desecration of a war memorial will come before Parliament. I met them earlier this week, and agree fully with its objectives.

But, backbench Bills rarely get the parliamentary time they need to become law. The Government will need to legislate.

Now is an opportune moment to think about memorials more broadly and make sure that all acts of vandalism that cause widespread disgust can be appropriately punished by the courts.

Everyone will have seen a local news story about a memorial to someone killed in a road traffic accident being vandalised at some point. Like war memorials, these tend to have substantial emotional and sentimental value but negligible monetary value.

Likewise, plaques to heroes such as Pc Keith Palmer, who was murdered trying to stop a terrorist from entering the Palace of Westminster, are not war memorials but are surely deserving of additional protection under the law.

There have also been appalling recent instances of religious headstones, especially Jewish ones, being smashed and vandalised. While racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage can be punished more severely, in practice this is extremely difficult to prove and those hurt are often left with a sense of injustice.

Later this year, I will set out my plans for sentencing reform. At the lower end, we will toughen community sentences by tightening curfews and requiring those convicted to do more hours of community payback by cleaning up our parks and streets. At the other end of the spectrum, we will end automatic halfway release from prison for serious crimes and ensure convicted child murderers spend the rest of their lives in prison.

This provides the opportunity to make sure the laws around criminal damage are fit for purpose and that the punishment for vandalising memorials fits the crime. The families of loved ones whose memories are insulted deserve nothing less.