Justice and Home Affairs Committee — hearing of 3 November 2026: transcript & video · Polyfact

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Justice and Home Affairs Committee

3 November 2026

Contents updated on 3 Nov 2026

Formal opening of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee evidence session on prisons, with Dame Anne Owers outlining her inspection, oversight and Howard League background that frames her evidence on capacity, safety and rehabilitation.

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Opening of evidence session and witness mandate

00:01

Opening of session and witness introduction

00:01

Prison capacity ‘perma‑crisis’ and system‑wide reviews

01:36

Prison capacity ‘perma‑crisis’ and systemic drivers

01:36

Probation pressures and case for an independent capacity body

03:20

Amber Rudd review — scope versus past reviews

06:29

Release arrangements, tagging tools, and pressures on probation and staff

07:36

Release arrangements — tagging, support services, and homelessness

07:36

Tagging innovations and limits without tackling root causes

10:40

Courts and Tribunals Bill — faster justice and capacity impacts

11:36

Probation service crisis and workforce experience gap

12:15

Purposeful activity, COVID‑era lock‑up, and local prison leadership

18:46

Purposeful activity and prison education decline

18:46

Lock‑up culture, COVID impacts, and reoffending data caveats

23:14

Governors’ autonomy, turnover, and role in staffing

24:14

Oversight mechanisms, Crown immunity, and third‑sector role

27:23

Oversight effectiveness, IMBs, and Crown immunity question

27:23

Crown immunity, safety risks, and enforcement leverage

31:15

Limited impact of decades of reviews and role of the third sector

33:02

Sentencing policy, release frameworks, and current prison safety

39:07

Sentencing lengths, conditional release, and public confidence

39:07

Prison safety, violence, self‑harm, drugs, and closing remarks

43:01

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Justice and Home Affairs Committee

3 November 2026

Justice and Home Affairs Committee Tue, 3 Nov 2026 House of Lords

Follow its sittings

00:01 - 00:29

Speaker 7

Okay. Order. The meeting is now being recorded and public proceedings are beginning. 5, 4 Welcome everybody and to this meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Select Committee, following up our work on prisons. We're absolutely delighted we've got Dame Anne Owers with us today.

Dame Anne, if you'd be kind enough to just introduce yourself and your background.

00:29 - 00:51

Speaker 4

Thank you, Lord Chairman. I'm Anne Owers, and I was for nine years Chief Inspector of Prisons, and after that I ran the Independent Police Complaints Commission as it then was, and have also been National Chair of the Independent Monitoring Boards in prisons, and currently I chair the Howard League.

00:51 - 00:53

Speaker 1

Thank you very much. Lord Trefgarne.

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