00:00Well, these decisions are really tough decisions and nobody wants to take them, they're difficult
00:04decisions. They're having to be taken for one reason, and one reason only, and that
00:09is the terrible inheritance on prisons that we had as an incoming government from the
00:13previous government. There was a basic failure, which is a failure to have enough prison places
00:19for the number of prisoners that were being sentenced to prison. That is about as basic
00:23a failure of government from the previous government as you could possibly have got.
00:28We've had to deal with that, with the additional strain of the disorder of recent weeks. But
00:33as I hope we've been able to demonstrate, we've taken tough decisions. We've been able
00:37to prove that if you commit disorder, you can expect to be put through the criminal
00:42justice system quickly, and we will continue in that vein. But I'm not going to pretend
00:46that this isn't a challenge. We will take the necessary tough decisions on this, but
00:51we should never, ever have been put in a position that we're in today. We are managing that
00:56risk, and of course these are tough decisions. But I think you've seen over the last two
01:01or three weeks the way in which we've approached this, which is to make sure that any risk
01:07is mitigated, to make sure that we do have the spaces available for the prisoners that
01:11we need to be held in prison. We've managed that against very difficult circumstances,
01:16I can tell you. And for my part, I think the response of criminal justice to the recent
01:21disorders has been a major reason that the disorders have subsided for the time being.
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