Member

Amendment 8 focuses on burglary. Some 76% of burglaries in England and Wales were left unsolved in the year to June 2023. For residential burglaries in the year to March 2025, the charge rate was 4.7%: fewer than one in 20 home burglaries resulted in someone being charged. It is no wonder that burglary is a persistent scourge committed by repeat offenders. Are we now going to reduce the small deterrent effect—by abolishing custodial sentences and a somewhat punitive approach—to a nasty offence that traumatises victims? They see their homes despoiled and such violation causes great distress and anxiety. I know that the Minister would not want that to be the case. These proposals put career criminals out on the street to assault, thieve and commit other criminal activities, including burglary, for the sake of, as a sanction, unpaid work and a stiff talk with a probation officer.