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Sentencing Reform/Legal Aid

I agree with my hon. Friend. I think that the reason why the last Government introduced IPPs was that they were reducing the time of a sentence automatically served from three quarters to a half. They introduced what sounded like a tough measure, with these new indeterminate sentences. However, it immediately went wrong, and they introduced more legislation after two years to try to reduce the numbers. I regret to say that my first effort was to go in the same direction and reduce them even more. I hope that I have my hon. Friend's support in saying that the best thing is to get rid of them and return to a sensible system of long, determinate sentencing.