Justice Secretary: Impact of riots to be felt 'for years to come' as more people to appear in court

Firefighters tend to a burning police car burns as officers are deployed on the streets of Hartlepool following a violent protest. Credit: PA

The impact of days of disorder will be “felt for months and years” in the criminal justice system, the justice secretary has said.

Shabana Mahmood said the riots will set back the new Labour government’s efforts to fix the justice system, which was already facing a massive backlog of court cases and dwindling space in prisons.

The Ministry of Justice has risen to the challenge of “bringing rapid charges against these thugs and hooligans”, including by bringing forward more than 500 prison places to make sure there is space for those the courts are sending to custody, Ms Mahmood wrote in The Observer.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (left), with Governor Sarah Bott (right), during a visit to HMP Bedford in Harpur, Bedfordshire in July. Credit: PA

But she said this was made more difficult by the situation her government inherited from the Conservatives.

She said: “The impact of these days of disorder will be felt for months and years to come. They make the job of rebuilding the justice system harder.

Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.

“They also offer a sobering reminder of how much worse things might have been had this Government not acted fast, a few weeks ago, to address the crisis in our criminal justice system before it was too late.”

Soon after being elected in July, the government announced plans to release some inmates early to free up prison space.

Have you heard our podcast Talking Politics? Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda in every episode…