Law and Justice

	British citizens are feeling increasingly vulnerable on our streets, particularly women, children and the elderly. Personal safety is a growing concern in a society where violence, public disorder and drugs are rife.
We promise to cut paperwork in all areas of public service, and introduce credible minimum prison terms and an end to early releases.
Topic Links www.crimestoppers-uk.org www.crimeconcern.org.uk www.talktofrank.com www.cutredtape.org
Our Policies 1a. A capacity for justice. A large increase in the overall prison capacity has to be central to our promise to restore law and order. And due to the shambles of Labour's prison mismanagement we have no alternative but to use prison ships to help ease the overcrowding crisis until new prisons can be built. Additionally, a Templar government will not let political correctness obstruct cell sharing and restrict prison capacities. We will strip out all the luxuries afforded to pampered inmates and provide the bare minimum facilities. Televisions, games consoles, pool tables and other leisure items will be replaced by manual labour. Prisoners will work off their debt to society under our leadership and not wish to return once released. It goes without saying that prisoners will not be paid or rewarded for this work, and it will be compulsory. Under Labour convicts are earning £11,000 a year in prison, and are then having this topped up with tax credits of £1,300. This despite the fact that inmates have no outgoings and cost the taxpayer £37,000 a year to keep behind bars. This practice was only revealed after a whistleblower working for the prison service contacted a national newspaper. Ministers had previously insisted no tax credits were made for work carried out inside jail. These changes will also apply to Young Offenders Institutes, cutting back on all unnecessary luxuries in favour of manual labour and schooling. We will do everything we can to cut reconvictions upon release, which are currently at 59% within 2 years, or 73% for 18-21 year olds. 1b. Prison works. We will end soft sentencing and early releases, and introduce credible minimum sentences for priority crimes. The following offences will be among the first to be given a minimum 6 month* prison term. i) Carrying a knife or other dangerous weapon. ii) Possession/Use of Class A or B drugs. iii) Assaulting a police officer, fireman or hospital staff on duty. iv) Employing illegal immigrants. v) Solicitation and kerb crawling. *This will be reviewed annually with a view to extending it to 12 months when proven successful. Other priority offences will also be added to this list. The public have lost faith in law enforcement under a Labour government which is soft on crime. Judges are advised to avoid prison sentences where possible as a result of the record levels our prison population, which has grown by 20% since 1997. Labour promised to be 'Tough on crime. Tough on the causes of crime.' and their website still reads 'Latest figures show violence and street-crime levels are falling.' despite the fact recent figures have shown massive increases. We will restore this faith in law enforcement and we predict that although the prison population will rise sharply in the short-term, we will see an overall steady decline in the long-term, and a large improvement in the number of criminals reoffending. 1c. Paying a debt to society. Why should YOU pay for their crimes? We will introduce a scheme whereby former prisoners are required to repay all living expenses incurred during their incarceration. This will considerably reduce the cost to the state for keeping prisoners, and potentially save British taxpayers up to 50% of these costs. The scheme would of course only be based on an individual's ability to pay, and run through the existing Inland Revenue Income Tax mechanism.
2. Protect the innocent, not the guilty. Due to our commitment to withdraw from the EU, we will be able to successfully scrap the farcical Human Rights Act backed by Labour and imposed on Britain by the European Union. David Cameron's empty promises to address this problem should he gain power are preposterous, as whilst a member of the EU no-one has the authority to do this and Cameron is an avowed Europhile. It is impossible to state just how important it is to revoke the Human Rights Act in Britain. The avalanche of political correctness, costly litigation, destruction of justice and creation of compensation culture are absolutely detrimental to our way of life. The holes punctured in our security both nationally and in the community have put the lives of our citizens at stake. Vitally our commitment to abolish the Human Rights Act means that foreign criminals and suspected terrorists can be deported with immediate effect or detained until we are good and ready. Additionally, we would propose a policy to deport convicted foreign criminals immediately on conviction, instead of waiting until their sentence is served in Britain, thus saving the taxpayer millions of pounds a year. >>> Examples of how the despised law has affected Britain In a recent case, the local Government revealed to parents at a school that a paedophile convicted of the manslaughter of a 14-year old boy waited outside to collect his child. However, due to privacy laws the identity of the paedophile could not be revealed to frantic parents, leaving hundreds of children at risk. We ask simply, why is the law set up to protect the guilty and leave the innocent at risk? Our priority will be to protect the innocent, and we will ensure that known paedophiles whereabouts and identities are available through the Freedom of Information Act.
3. Cutting the red tape. We will reform and cut police paperwork drastically, allowing officers to spend more time on our streets preventing crime. Currently a Police Officer spends just 17% of his time patrolling the streets, the rest being taken up with paperwork and bureaucracy. Furthermore we will use some of the £12bn a year surplus - created as a result of EU withdrawal - to pay for 10,000+ new police officers, and 20,000+ new community support officers to back them up.
4. Laying the foundations for good health. We will repeal the 24 hour drinking law on the evidence provided by doctors and the police. New studies show that Britons are drinking themselves to death faster than any other European country. This will have a massive affect on the future of the NHS unless stemmed. Furthermore we will endeavour to make it more difficult for minors to purchase or obtain alcohol, by promoting the 'No Card, No Sale' practice in relation to proof of age cards. We will also increase the number of test purchases made by Local Trading Standards departments, and enforce harsher sentencing for individuals who break these laws. Trading Standards and the Police carry out test purchases of alcohol using under age volunteers. Trading Standards carried out a recent survey and found that 40% of shops visited sold alcohol to the volunteer who was under 18.
5. Something for nothing? Not anymore. We will pre-empt Britain's growing 'compensation culture' by imposing credible maximum compensation claims. We will continue to support legitimate claims, whilst clamping down on petty and minor claims costing British taxpayers millions. Compensation payouts to prisoners soared to nearly £9million in the past 12 months. More than a four-fold increase in a year. This comes amid evidence that prisoners and their lawyers are using human rights laws to win payments from the taxpayer. • An inmate in Bullingdon prison in Oxfordshire is suing the Home Office after falling out of his bunk-bed. • Prisoners in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, were awarded £200 each after their DVD players were confiscated. • One prisoner was awarded £2.8million after a failed suicide bid. • £750,000 was paid out to nearly 200 drug addicts after claiming that they were being denied drugs in prison. • £80,000 was awarded to three illegal immigrants who were not deported quickly enough. A survey last year by employment law firm Peninsula found that 85% said that they would be prepared to lie if it meant winning a case against their employer, and 87% said the main reason for them initiating a claim would be the prospect of a big payout.