Prisoners will never be allowed to have sex with their husband or wife while Liz Truss is in charge, Justice Secretary declares
Speaking to MPs the Tory said the so-called 'Danish approach' would never be imported into Britain as part of her prison reforms.
PRISONERS will never get a behind-bars bonk with their hubbie or wife under Justice Secretary Liz Truss, she declared today.
Speaking to MPs the Tory said the so-called “Danish approach” would never be imported into Britain as part of her prison reforms.
The ‘No-Nookie’ vow came as the Tory was grilled over just how much flexibility individual prison Governors will be given under a shake-up of the penal system.
Tory backbencher Philip Davies remarked that some governors in Denmark believe allowing well-behaved lags to have sex with a spouse is hugely effective in controlling indiscipline.
Campaigners are separately pushing for prisoners to be allowed to Skype families and for modernising Governors to be allowed to roll-out in-cell phones.
Mr Davies asked the Minister: “How far would you be prepared to go with this agenda? Would you be prepared to allow them the freedom to do have sex?”
Ms Truss said: “What we will be doing is setting out a framework about which type of decision which can be made at the local level.”
Pressed on the “specific question”, she said: “I’m not entirely of favour of the Danish Approach put it like that. I won’t include that.”
So-called conjugal visits have been allowed in Denmark, Canada and Germany. In 2010 an inmate murdered his girlfriend during a visit- triggering fierce criticism of the approach.
Ms Truss’ comments came as she refused to give any details of the substance or timings of a host of work. She said more detail on prison reform would come this Autumn.
She separately insisted a British Bill of Rights would replace the Human Rights Act- but the details would only come “in due course”.
Taking to Twitter, one critic said: “Liz Truss would have saved herself some time if she had come in, shouted ‘I don’t bl***y know’ then walked out.”
Labour’s Shadow Justice Minister Jo Stevens branded the appearance before the Justice Select Committee “shambolic”.
She said: “Urgent action is long overdue and the Prison Reform Bill was the central piece of this year’s lightweight Queen’s Speech, but today she refused to confirm its fate.
“By failing to tackle the prisons crisis which developed on their watch, the Tories have yet again demonstrated that they have no plan for the challenges this country faces.”