Labour says it ‘beggars belief’ police told to arrest fewer people because of prison overcrowding – UK politics live

Good morning. The police have been told to arrest fewer people because jails in England and Wales are too full. The Times got the story last night, and if the inflation figures weren’t out this morning, it would be the lead item on the TV news.

In their story, Matt Dathan and Ben Ellery quote from a memo sent to chief constables by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). It says:

Consideration is to be given to pausing non-priority arrests and any planned operations where large numbers of arrests may take place to ease the pressure within the criminal justice system.

Notwithstanding public protection remains a priority and a considered threat, harm and risk assessment is to be completed when considering any pause in police operations.

The Times says police chiefs have not been told exactly what arrests to pause, but “sources clarified that a more accurate term would be ‘non-urgent’ arrests”, the paper reports. “They gave the example of a person named as a suspect in a crime where officers were yet to carry out investigative actions, such as reviewing CCTV or carrying out house-to-house forensics for a burglary.”

The report also quotes from a second NPCC letter sent to chief constables saying the prison overcrowding crisis is having an “unsustainable” impact on policing. It is from Rob Nixon, chief constable of Leicestershire police and the NPCC head of criminal justice, and Nev Kemp, deputy chief constable of Surrey police and the NPCC custody lead, and they say:

We continue along with NPCC chair Gavin Stephens to make it clear in the strongest terms that the current situation is having an unsustainable operational impact on policing and the further deterioration in the situation, which HMPPS expect early next week, will further impact on operational policing and risks public safety. It is important for us to be able to show what those risks to public safety are.

It is PMQs today and Rishi Sunak will want to talk about today’s fall in inflation. But it would be surprising if Keir Starmer does not ask about this story, which rather blows apart the claim Sunak made in a major speech last week about Britain being safer under the Tories.

For a preview of what Starmer is likely to say, this is what Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, said about the Times story last night.

It beggars belief that police are being told to sit on their hands and ignore crime because the Conservatives have mismanaged the criminal justice system so badly.

Rishi Sunak’s rap sheet now reads: the rushed early release of domestic abusers on to our streets, deliberate delays to trials, and victims waiting years for justice. The public will be absolutely dumbfounded. This cannot go on.

Labour is the party of law and order. We will build the new prisons needed and make Britain’s streets safe.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.25am: Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, gives evidence to the Commons work and pensions committee.

9.45am: Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive, gives evidence to the Post Office Horizon inquiry. We are covering that on a separate live blog.

10am: Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee.

Noon: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer at PMQs.

2pm: Jonathan Brearley, Ofgem’s chief executive, and Tim Jarvis, its director general, give evidence to the Commons energy security and net zero committee.

And David Cameron, the foreign secretary, is in Albania meeting the prime minister, Edi Rama.

If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line (BTL) or message me on X (Twitter). I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use X; I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos (no error is too small to correct). And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.