Responding to this morning’s NAO report on the crisis in Britain’s prisons, Green Party MP Siân Berry said,

“The National Audit Office has revealed in stark terms the futility of a society trying to imprison away crime.

“However fast the Government builds prisons, at the current rates of offending and reoffending, the respite from the current crisis of overcrowding will only last a handful of years.

“The Government must face this reality and build not more prisons but a planned programme of prevention and more effective alternatives to incarceration, particularly for women, young people and offenders whose crimes are driven by poverty and destitution.

“We need wholesale reform of short prison sentences, a focus on providing a real new start for people leaving prison, including safe housing, and a clear-headed look at the many ways people can repay their criminal debts to society more constructively.” 

She continued,

“At the heart of this crisis is a continuous error from successive governments – amplified by misleading front pages – in assuming that the way to reduce crime is to keep locking up more and more of our citizens.

“Reducing crime means investing in services and job opportunities for young people, and I am confident that Justice Minister Lord Timpson knows this.

“The only question is whether the Prime Minister is bold and brave enough to allow him to bring forward common-sense reforms to bring prison populations back down, rather than trying to build their way out of this crisis.”

Former Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, has given her reaction to suggestions that plans for a Natural History GCSE have been shelved because it is “seen as a Conservative party initiative.” Caroline was one of the key drivers of the GCSE in the last parliament. She said:

“I very much hope that Labour will look at this again, and appreciate both the popularity of the proposed Natural History GCSE, and the urgency of its introduction. The GCSE enjoys huge support, including from WWF and the Wildlife Trusts through to the Natural History Museum, the Association of School and College Leaders, 17 universities and thousands of young people themselves.  

“It was a privilege to work with author and former BBC producer Mary Colwell, who has spearheaded the campaign, to persuade the last Government to agree to it. The curriculum has been prepared over several years by the OCR exam board, and it’s close to being ready to roll out. Stalling at this point would be a disaster, doing a massive disservice to students who desperately want to learn more about the natural world; failing to equip them with the skills of the naturalist which have increasingly been lost, and making it harder for all of us to restore and protect nature.

“Over the last half century, the world has lost 60% of the mass of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles – our education system urgently needs to rise to the challenge of reversing this shocking scale of loss.”

Responding to news that local councils have told the government that its plan to build 1.5m new homes in England over the next five years is “unrealistic”, Green MP Ellie Chowns said: 

“Labour’s housing strategy involves cosying up to big wealthy developers and falling for the myth that the private sector will build the housing that we need. But too many developers are more interested in lining their own pockets than in providing what communities are actually crying out for, which is affordable housing.      

“We can’t privatise our way out of the housing crisis. If we are to build the right homes in the right place and at the right price, we need to build hundreds of thousands of new council and social homes. These need to be in places well served by schools, health services and public transport. Not detached housing estates with a predominance of large expensive homes that make a quick and big buck for developers but are out of reach for most people.” 

Green MP Sian Berry said:

“Today’s decisive vote in Parliament represents how the public feels about this highly sensitive issue. 

“The debate was full of caring and compassion on both sides – with all MPs listening respectfully to one another. 

“Each Green MP came to their decision after listening closely to the debate without being whipped. 

“We are now ready to work cross-party for a final Bill that has had every line closely examined and which will relieve the suffering of people who are dying whilst improving the options available for all of us at the end of our lives.”