Alex Norris’s first conference address as Justice Secretary: the reforms he announced

Alex Norris delivered his first speech to party conference as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He framed the address as a response to what he described as a criminal justice system in crisis when his government took office — high prison occupancy, crown court backlogs, and problems in probation — and set out a package of reforms intended to restore capacity, speed up justice, and reshape rehabilitation.

Norris reiterated commitments to reduce crown court backlogs and improve the experience for victims, especially victims of violence against women and girls. He confirmed a manifesto pledge to implement specialist rape courts at every crown court in the country and credited MP Charlotte Nichols for speaking publicly about her experience, which he said helped make the change possible.

Prisons: capacity, punishment and technology

He described a large prison build programme as necessary "so we never run out of places," calling it the largest since the Victorian era. Norris linked capacity to public safety, arguing that dangerous offenders must be kept in prison when required. At the same time he stated prisons should not be "colleges of crime" and must deliver rehabilitation as well as punishment.

To address new threats, he announced the launch of a challenge to industry to bring cutting-edge technology into prisons to tackle drone use. He positioned this as public sector collaboration with private enterprise to protect the public and support frontline prison staff.

IPP sentences and community punishment

On community sentences, he rejected a binary view of punishment as either custody or free life outside prison. He described new tools given to probation officers — curfews, electronic tags, exclusion zones and a new world-first restriction zone to confine offenders to a small area — and said he will prioritise unpaid work that is "tough and visible," so punishment is seen to be done.

He also announced plans to strengthen the rehabilitative value of community payback by equipping offenders with skills and routes into employment, combining punishment with purposeful work.

Wider aim: prevention and reoffending

Norris tied these operational measures to a strategic goal: crime prevention with a priority on reducing reoffending. He quoted a high reoffending figure (80% of all offending) to justify a system redesign that focuses on breaking cycles of reoffending. He acknowledged predecessors David Lammy and Shabana Mahmood for starting reforms and presented his announcements as continuations and accelerations of that work.

The speech mixed policy detail with political framing: it criticised years of austerity and mismanagement under the previous government and portrayed the announced measures as corrective action. Norris named close colleagues on his team and thanked the movement for support, combining operational commitments with explicit acknowledgements of political allies.

The announced programmes — specialist rape courts, the prison build programme, industry tech challenge, ending IPP sentences, and new probation powers — will require legislative or operational follow-through. Implementation details, timetables and costs were not provided in the speech excerpt, but the list of initiatives gives a clear set of priorities for the Justice Department going forward.