Justice system cuts ‘have had huge human cost’

SHADOW CHANCELLOR John McDonnell has outlined the “huge human cost” of cuts to the justice system ahead of next month’s Budget.

In the first of a series of preBudget reports Labour is releasing highlighting cuts to public services, the party says cuts to justice have caused a crisis in prisons, with a surge in deaths, violence, self-harm and drug abuse.

Mr McDonnell said: “Ten years of austerity have cut jobs, undermined morale, and harmed the quality of the services we all rely on.

“What our latest analysis shows is that cuts in justice have also made us all less safe.

“The Tories have torn apart our social fabric, and the upcoming Budget looks likely to risk another five years of decline and disappointment.”

The Treasury was contacted for comment.

Labour’s Shadow Treasury team said: “The part privatisation of probation showed that Conservative governments’ approach to justice has been erratic and ill-judged” and “the prison system has been pushed to breaking point through under-resourcing”.

They said by 2019/20 the budget for the Ministry of Justice had dropped by 25 per cent since 2010/11.

And the report added: “The Treasury has had to dip into its reserve several times in recent years because assumptions made in the 2015 Spending Review have not turned out to be true, and operational challenges have been greater than expected.”

It also quoted the Institute for Government thinktank which last year described “a dramatic deterioration in standards across prisons since 2009/10” and a “sharp rise in deaths, violence, self-harm, poor behaviour and drug use – as well as a drop-off in efforts to rehabilitate prisoners”.

The Labour report said: “The Tory Government should adopt, without delay, the approach to justice advocated by Labour.”

It added: “More fundamentally, it must end austerity for good, recognising that cuts to spending will only undermine people’s safety and the quality of justice in this country.”

The Budget will be held on March 11 by new Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the Richmond MP.

Earlier in the week Institute for Fiscal Studies Director Paul Johnson said it would set the direction of Government policy for the next five years.

He said: “If this new Government is going to make radical change to taxes and spending this surely is the time to do it.”