Catherine Atkinson MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  In my early years as a barrister, I sometimes came across defendants who knew the criminal justice system better than me. Their antecedents—their list of previous convictions—was pages long, showing multiple stints in prison. I used to do both prosecution and defence, and I remember some defendants even sharing with me their top tips as to what might be the strongest arguments for bail or the best mitigation points in sentencing, because they had been through the process so many times. I also saw offenders sentenced to custody for the first time, taking their turn in what is far too often a revolving door of prison. Sometimes, they were sent to prison far from home. It is so common to see offenders lose family ties, their housing, their job and any sense of purpose. After weeks, months or years, they would come out having achieved nothing, often with little or no money, no job and little confidence or self-worth.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution and for making that powerful point. That is why the Government are doing so much to reduce the backlog. Work in prison also comes with a host of second-order benefits, such as improving prisoner behaviour, filling skills gaps and boosting the economy. I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge in turning around our prisons; nor do I seek to claim that we could get all prisoners in prison starting to work tomorrow. I pay tribute to the work of our current Home Secretary, who when Justice Secretary got to grips with the crisis she inherited of prisons near to complete collapse. Over the 14 years of Conservative Government, prisoner participation in education, employment and vocational qualifications dropped sharply. As the previous Government were coming to their end, His Majesty’s inspectorate of prisons condemned the “appalling” neglect of how prisoners spend their time; far too many were locked in cells without meaningful activity. In category C prisons—closed prisons, but with lower security than those in category A or B—nearly a quarter of prisoners reported getting less than two hours unlocked each day.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  I agree, and I want to see work in prison start as early as possible—not just at the end of a prisoner’s sentence but during it. I was proud to stand on a manifesto pledge to get offenders into work. That offenders should work is a conclusion that is intuitively obvious to me, having been a barrister, and that is also empirically supported. Rehabilitation without getting into work is rare. For those who have offended, and considering the impact on the rest of us, working is far better than sitting in cells most days.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. Having a range of options for people is really important, but she also makes it clear that shorter sentences can prevent rehabilitative work being done, which is why it is so important that we are trying to move to a presumption against shorter sentences. A range of things can be done, and there needs to be a co-ordinated effort to ensure consistency and opportunity across the prison estate. Perhaps that could involve asking different Government Departments to look at the goods and services that they procure from prisons, to ensure that there is that option, or building on the brilliant work being done on procurement to ensure that employers who provide meaningful work opportunities to prisoners see the wider benefit, thereby reinforcing the Government’s commitment to rehabilitation and reducing reoffending. There is a popular myth that the poorer the quality of a prison, the greater the punishment, but that has been well tested over the last 14 years. His Majesty’s chief inspector of prisons suggests not only that purposeless prisons are harmful for prisoners, but that that harm could extend to wider society. We cannot isolate, bore or humiliate someone into being rehabilitated. It is far better that they are able to make amends through work. The idea that giving more people—perhaps people who have never had it—access to good work might strengthen society comes naturally to me as a Labour MP, because Labour is the party of work. Without it, boredom, frustration and despair can thrive. Work in prisons benefits prisoners, yes, but it also works for those who risk their life and their safety as frontline prison officers and probation officers. It works for companies, and not just because they are keen to do their part for society. It can help us to meet the skills challenges that industry faces, to onshore manufacturing jobs, and to create more funding for victims through the Prisoners’ Earnings Act 1996 levy. Job or jail? If we truly want to break the cycle of crime, and give people in my constituency of Derby North and across the country the safety and opportunity that they deserve, this is how we begin.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  That is another fantastic initiative. I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. Impressively, some of the partner agents and partner charities working with the RFA have achieved reoffending rates of under 5%. I was told at HMP Ranby that the most popular work with prisoners was for the rail industry, though sometimes a prison struggles to find long-term rail-related work for prisoners. The RFA is working to help address that. That is particularly important in a sector such as rail, which really needs more skilled workers and is anticipated to lose 90,000 workers by 2030. The RFA has a tracking system that allows it to see how prisoners and placements progress. The Prison Reform Trust reports that, for years, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service “has not published figures on the number of prisoners working in custody, due to the disruption to data quality.” We need more data and we need it to be tracked.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Work for Serving Prisoners · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady makes an important point. That is one of the reasons that the RFA has created its tracking system: to have tangible evidence of the efficacy of the work that we intuitively know must be successful in preventing reoffending. The businesses that I have met that are utilising release on temporary licence schemes or have workshops in prisons often act from a really strong ethic and a strong sense of social responsibility. There are also economic benefits and evidence—a clear business case—for providing work in prisons. I thank the East Midlands Chamber for its work with businesses in this area. I was told by their chief executive, Scott Knowles, that “those employers that can successfully navigate the administrative burden to employ prisoners or offer placements on temporary licence, frequently comment that these members of the team rapidly become their most productive team members.” A lot of the work taking place in prison is not for the private sector at all. Some 90% of the work at HMP Ranby is for the public sector, in a range of things including building beds, lockers and furniture for use not just in other prisons but in the wider public sector. That means that it does not have to be bought in, providing significant savings to the public purse as a result. The success of schemes such as those that have been mentioned and those at HMP Ranby raises an important question: how can we scale up the model across more prisons and employers? The goal should be to reach a point where, upon release, prisoners can return to their communities anywhere in the country and find employment that builds on the skills that were developed inside.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Pride in Place · Hansard source

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  For years in Derby, we have been pushing for this kind of long-term investment—investment that the fantastic community of Chaddesden richly deserves. It will take time and hard work to recover from the 14 years of neglect that communities like Chaddesden experienced. I would like every Chadd resident with ideas of how they can get the money spent and get involved to contact me. Does the Minister agree that it is key that local people have a say in how that money is spent?

• 16 Sept 2025 · Sentencing Bill · Hansard source

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  Madam Deputy Speaker, put yourself in the place of a victim of crime. You want to go out for a walk with your family, out to the park or to the other side of town, but you are worried that the perpetrator might see you there. You want to go for a night out or to support your football team, but you are worried about what they might do or how you might react if they are there too, so you do not. They are the one who was convicted, but you still feel like the prisoner. They received the sentence, but you are being punished. It happens too often, and I have come across cases like these not just as an MP but in my time as a barrister. This is a Bill whose time has come, because it turns that injustice on its head. Currently, some offenders can be excluded from certain limited areas, but under this Bill, they can be restricted from all areas apart from a limited one. Whether it is the pub, the match or driving around, expanding community punishments and licensing conditions will ensure that it is the offenders who face restrictions on what they can do and enjoy, not the victims. I do not need to tell my constituents in Derby North about the situation inherited from the Conservatives—a broken justice system, prisons full and in crisis, severe criminal court backlogs and decaying infrastructure—because too many of them live the reality of having to deal with the thousands of antisocial behaviour incidents that we see in our city every year. There is a need to tackle prolific and persistent offenders with strict monitoring and co-ordinated support. The expansion of intensive supervision courts is designed to do just that, and it is hugely welcomed by those I have spoken to who work in our criminal courts. They have said to me, “Roll this out as fast as possible.” The additional £700 million that this Government are investing in our Probation Service—with the recruitment of 1,000 trainee probation officers already and 1,300 more to be recruited in the next six months—is rebuilding that service. We are rebuilding after the Conservative Government’s vandalism, their failed experiment in privatising probation, which pushed it to crisis, and their having to bring it back into public hands. Probation officers work incredibly hard to keep our communities safe, and I am grateful that this Government are investing in their essential work. May I also take this opportunity to thank those who work in our prisons? The number of prisoners will, of course, still go up. The Government are building more prison places—something that the previous Government all but failed to do—and more offenders will be behind bars than ever before under this Government. We therefore need to turn prisons from creating better criminals to creating better citizens. The earned progression model rewards good behaviour and punishes bad behaviour in our prisons. It is an important tool to break the cycles of offending that we have seen for far too long, and when offenders stop offending, our communities are safer. The Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending—a businessman who throughout his career enabled offenders to turn their lives around and to break those cycles—knows better than anyone how to make this work. I recently visited HMP Ranby to see how it is increasing the type of work that the prisoners there undertake, from creating furniture and doing laundry for prisons and other public services, saving taxpayers’ money, to working on reading and writing, or undertaking work for the private sector, giving offenders the skills to secure work on release. Utilising and increasing the opportunities for offenders to work in prison can build on the important measures in the Bill, reducing reoffending by giving them purpose and skills, while instilling a work routine. I will make that case in an Adjournment debate on 15 October. I am grateful for the opportunity to highlight these three aspects of the approach: the intensive supervision to tackle antisocial behaviour and prolific offending; measures to help end the revolving door of offending; and new restriction zones and community punishments to give freedom back to victims. The Bill was born of necessity, because of the mess in which the Conservatives left our prisons and criminal courts. While born of necessity, though, I am excited about the transformative difference that the Bill will make, so that fewer offenders reoffend, victims are where they must be—the focus of our criminal justice system—and our communities are safer as a result.

• 11 Sept 2025 · Regional Transport Inequality · Hansard source

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  I think we can all agree that the better the technology and the real-time information that is needed, the more people will be encouraged to use our buses. We absolutely need to encourage more people to use our buses. Over the 15 years up to 2023, we saw a massive loss of bus services. Where the cuts hit has varied, but hardest hit was the east midlands region where we lost 60% of our bus services. The Transport Committee highlighted that decline in our report on buses that was published over the summer. We must not forget on whom bus investment impacts the most: the young, the elderly, those on low incomes and the disabled. Hon. Members will be shocked that I have got this far into my speech without mentioning trains, because I talk about rail quite a lot, which is entirely understandable as a Derby MP. Derby will be the home of Great British Railways. It is the city at the centre of the largest cluster of rail companies in Europe, and arguably globally. It is the city that a few weeks ago hosted the Greatest Gathering—the world’s largest ever gathering of historical and modern rail vehicles, which was described as a “Glastonbury for trains”—to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the modern railway. However, despite this rich rail heritage in the region, there are just over 100 rail stations for 5 million people. The region has the lowest proportion of people living within a 15 to 20-minute walk of a rail station in England, and about three quarters of those stations are served by just one train or fewer per hour. The capital of rail will be the region with the lowest train station usage per head in England. Our midlands main line that runs through the east midlands is the only main line route in England that is not yet fully electrified. It is electrified to Wigston, south of Leicester. East Midlands Railway will be putting on new bi-mode trains by the end of the year, so those living alongside the route up to Wigston will benefit and the 9 million passengers who use the line will get that far using electrified tracks. After Wigston, however, the trains will revert to diesel, and the rest of the densely populated line will continue to be exposed to more noise and tens of thousands of tonnes of CO 2 every year. Hundreds of people have written to me supporting the call for electrification.

• 11 Sept 2025 · Regional Transport Inequality · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered regional transport inequality. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate. It was originally due to take place on the first day back from the summer recess, but there was not time because so many people wanted to speak. I am grateful to those in attendance today. The importance of transport is completely understandable. Whether for travel to work and to healthcare appointments, meeting family and friends, or getting goods to the businesses that need them, transport keeps our country running, keeps life moving and keeps us all connected. This Labour Government are committed to opening up opportunities across our country, so it is important to address the historic and long-standing inequalities between regions when it comes to transport. Those of us who had the chance to go on holiday in the UK during our hot summer, which already seems quite a long time ago, have returned better acquainted with the transport infrastructure in each other’s constituencies—those who heard, “Are we there yet?” on repeat from the back seat are perhaps too acquainted. One of the benefits of being on the Transport Committee —as well as having esteemed colleagues, a number of whom are here today—is that every trip can be an unofficial fact-finding trip. We can compare, sometimes enviously, the newest tram extension, charging network or bus lane. Colleagues across the country are advocating for transport projects their constituencies. When we are successful in securing transport investment, that change brings people together, cuts costs for our businesses and allows people to access new opportunities, but when transport breaks down or gets cut, constituents suffer the consequences, often daily. One example in my constituency is the Darley Abbey Mills bridge, which was found to be unsafe and was shut, leaving people and businesses cut off and isolated. A temporary bridge was put in three years ago, but thanks to the new East Midlands Mayor, Claire Ward, funding has been secured to progress towards a business case for building a permanent bridge. One of the reasons that I was so keen to be on the Transport Committee was that transport is essential to economic growth and decarbonisation. The connectivity that transport brings is equally important up and down the country, but the amount of investment that regions get for transport has historically been miles apart. Transport is the most unequally distributed of areas of spending, including education and health. There are many colleagues here from the east midlands, which has the lowest transport expenditure per head of all the regions and nations in the United Kingdom. In 2023-24, it was £368 per person—just a quarter of the amount for London, and about half the average for England. If the east midlands had been allocated the UK average in the five years between 2019 and 2024, we would have received an additional £10 billion. To ensure prosperity reaches all corners of our country, more equal investment is vital, so I welcome the direction of travel in the spending review, including the £15.6 billion of investment in local transport projects for England’s city regions over the next five years—more than double the previous capital spending rates. That includes £2 billion of funding secured by our excellent East Midlands Mayor, Claire Ward. For years, there have been concerns that the UK Green Book—the Treasury’s official guidance for appraising public investments—is skewing how areas of need are identified. There has been an over-concentration of investment in high-GDP areas, neglecting the potential of other regions, which creates a vicious cycle. I welcome the Chancellor’s review, and I look forward to the new Green Book next year. To secure the transformational change that we need, this Labour Government are investing in areas that have been neglected and forgotten. Speaking of neglect, when it comes to potholes and the need to better maintain and improve our roads, this Government have increased capital funding to £24 billion over three years. That is particularly important for Derbyshire, which, according to the RAC, had the worst potholes in the country. With the better buses Bill, the Government have recognised the importance of bus travel.

• 11 Sept 2025 · Regional Transport Inequality · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for the support that my hon. Friend, alongside many colleagues, has shown for electrification and the benefits that it can bring. It would be a fitting celebration of 200 years of the modern railway to continue the electrification of the midland main line, which would bring jobs, skills and hundreds of millions of pounds in economic benefits particularly to the east midlands. I love my region, and like so many in this Chamber I know my region’s strengths and can imagine the possibilities if investment were genuinely equitably distributed around our country. If our regional transport was more equal, it would create more prosperity, economic growth, social equality, regional development and carbon reduction as well as better air quality. Our transport infrastructure is the country’s circulatory system: it connects and enriches wherever it reaches. If someone’s circulation is not great, they feel the cold a little more in their fingers, as I well know. If it is restricted more, their arms and legs get fatigue, numbness and pain. In the extreme, it eventually leads to organ failure. That is where we had been heading for far too long, but over the last year the Government have been getting the blood pumping again.

• 11 Sept 2025 · Regional Transport Inequality · Hansard source

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  I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting the debate. I thank my many colleagues who spoke passionately and persuasively for better transport options for their regions, but also raised fantastic examples of new investment. The number of contributions shows how important transport equality is, and it is hugely heartening to hear the progress being made by this Government, backed by actual funding. I thank the Minister for his response. When it comes to regional transport equality, some of us may sit behind the Minister and echo my children’s oft-used refrain, “Are we nearly there yet?” but now we have a Government who have us driving in the right direction, on track to unlock the economic potential across the whole country. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered regional transport inequality.

• 11 Sept 2025 · Regional Transport Inequality · Hansard source

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  I am just about to finish. If the UK is a body, Derby is geographically at its heart and is asking to have the same chance as everywhere else to be connected. We need to maintain our change of direction to reduce the inequality in the spend per person on transport, stay on track towards the reduction, and ultimately the elimination, of regional transport inequality, and deliver fair funding for transport.

• 8 Sept 2025 · Defence Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  This morning, I was at the Nuclear Skills Academy in Derby. It is a partnership between Rolls-Royce and the University of Derby that teaches the skills needed to create the reactors that power our submarines, and it delivers 200 apprenticeships a year. The defence industrial strategy delivers the biggest investment in defence skills in decades. Can the Minister tell us more about how it will help smaller defence suppliers to secure the skills that they need, too?

• 2 Sept 2025 · Eating Disorders: Prevention of Deaths · Hansard source

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  I strongly endorse what my hon. Friend says. The majority of the people First Steps ED support are children and young people, but sadly demand is at a record high, outpacing the support available. I welcome the additional funding that the Government are giving to these services, but does my hon. Friend agree that ensuring early support for young patients is vital and cannot be left to charities alone?

• 2 Sept 2025 · Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse · Hansard source

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  The crime of group-based child sexual exploitation is probably the most heinous imaginable. It is so brave of victims to speak out, seek justice and drive change so that other young lives are protected from such crimes. Can the Minister tell us more about how the national inquiry will engage with victims and survivors and ensure that their voices—and the voices of those who previously bravely contributed to investigations and inquiries—are central to the recommendations? Unlike the criminal law, the criminal injuries compensation scheme does not recognise that children cannot legally consent, and excludes those who have been deemed to consent from compensation. Will the Minister work with the Victims Minister—the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones)—to right that injustice?

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  More than 60 year 4 pupils from Walter Evans primary school in Derby wrote to me and the Secretary of State worried about sewage dumping and plastic pollution in our rivers. I thank the Secretary of State for his clear commitment that the Government will halve pollution in our rivers by 2030. Does he agree that had the Conservatives taken action of that kind when they came to power 14 years ago, my nine-year-old constituents would have known cleaner rivers all their lives?

• 21 Jul 2025 · Further Education Estate · Hansard source

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  6. What steps she is taking to help improve the condition of the further education college estate.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Further Education Estate · Hansard source

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  The oldest surviving locomotive roundhouse in Britain is in Derby, and what was once at the forefront of Victorian engineering is now a cutting-edge learning environment for local young people who will build the homes of the future. But the site is full to bursting—Derby college needs more space. Does the Minister agree that if it became a construction technical excellence college, it could extend its site, increase its capacity in brickwork, carpentry and joinery by 50%, and teach more students the construction skills we desperately need?

• 15 Jul 2025 · Afghanistan · Hansard source

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  My husband served in Afghanistan and has always felt keenly the debt that our country owes to those who worked alongside and supported our forces, and I know that many of my constituents who served there feel the same. If we fail to honour our debts, why should people in future conflicts trust us and support our troops? Does the Defence Secretary share that concern? Does he also agree that it is right that we offer a warm welcome to the Afghans who come to our country seeking sanctuary?

• 14 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We are seeing massive investment in the regeneration of Derby city centre, including the opening of a new entertainment venue and the reopening of our market hall, which is bursting with small and independent businesses. Regeneration also means ensuring that our city feels safe, welcoming and inclusive. Will the Minister tell us how the Department is working with the Home Office to ensure that our cities and towns are thriving and safe?

• 9 Jul 2025 · Trial by Jury: Proposed Restrictions · Hansard source

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  After 14 years of Conservative government, victims of rape and serious sexual crimes are waiting years to see justice. It appears that the shadow Justice Secretary has recently discovered that our criminal justice system is broken. When does the Minister think he will discover who broke it?

• 8 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Derbyshire Victim Services does really important work supporting victims, including those who have experienced sexual assault and domestic violence, but given the court backlog inherited from the Conservative Government, the service has told me that many of the victims are in need of support for longer, with many having complex needs that public services can struggle to meet. What steps is the Department taking to help support services to provide support to victims with complex needs that are exacerbated when justice is delayed?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Backing Rolls-Royce, a brilliant Derby business, to deliver small modular reactors with £2.5 billion of investment shows what Labour’s new industrial strategy is about—backing British business, creating more skilled jobs and delivering clean, secure energy. Does the Chancellor agree that, after years of chaos under the Conservatives, Britain is unashamedly open for business?

• 26 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I met taxi drivers in Derby, at a meeting organised by the GMB, who are proud of the work they do. They want high standards across the board; what actions is the Minister taking to review taxi licensing, so that everyone can have confidence that the taxi and private hire industry is reliable, sustainable, and safe for passengers and the drivers themselves?