This week's MP's column comes from Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley

Before Parliament broke up for the summer recess the Victims and Prisoners Bill was making its way through its various stages in the House of Commons.

When Parliament returns, I will be tabling some amendments to the Bill to try to strengthen it and I very much hope that the Government will take my suggestions on board.

As many reading this will know, I am fed up to the back teeth of being so soft on criminals and I make no apology for wanting much tougher sentences, a much tougher prison regime and for victims to be the priority - not criminals - at all times.

The Bill already contains some things which should hopefully improve the current situation.

For example, the measures in the Bill would prohibit prisoners who are serving whole life orders from marrying or forming a civil partnership in prison. However, this is really only going to affect a handful of people as hardly anyone gets a whole life order.

There are plenty of life sentences handed out but we know that these do not actually mean life unless they are the rare whole life orders.

It is a shame that it took the case of Levi Bellfield – the evil multiple murderer – to encourage this change after his lawyers successfully claimed it was his human right to marry.

Fixing this for the future (subject to other human rights battles) is at least a step in the right direction and extending it to all life sentenced prisoners would be even better. Many people will be appalled that it has even been allowed to happen in the first place.

The Bill also makes it easier for the Secretary of State to override a Parole Board decision to release someone where they are a serious offender – for example a murderer. It also enables the Parole Board to decline to make a decision in such a case and effectively hand the decision over to the Secretary of State.

Given most politicians seem to want to be popular these days I am hoping that this might help in some cases as presumably no Secretary of State is going to particularly want to be held personally responsible for a serious criminal being released who then goes on and commits another serious crime.

I would rather prisoners just served the full sentences they were given in the first place and then there would not be much need for the Parole Board at all but, in the absence of that change, this is at least potentially an improvement on where we are now.

An amendment I will table will be to stop prisoners who assault prison staff from being released early. In the year to March 2023 there were a staggering 7,461 assaults on prison staff and this is 7,461 too many. That is 20 prison staff a day being attacked for just doing their job.

As I have mentioned, I am not a fan of releasing people early anyway but preventing them from leaving prison after assaulting a member of staff not only seems like a fitting punishment but it might also make prisoners think twice and prevent some of these abhorrent attacks.

Another thing that needs to change as far as I am concerned is the scandalous situation whereby someone is released from prison early and then goes on to breach their licence conditions or commit another offence. Instead of being recalled to prison to serve the remainder of their sentence, as most sensible people would think they should, they are instead returned to prison in some cases for just 28 days and then released again.

We have also recently had the Government effectively encouraging courts to bear in mind prison overcrowding when sentencing.

That should never be the case. It should not be for judges and magistrates to worry about that – their only concern should be to ensure that justice is done.

We lock few enough people up as it is without encouraging courts to keep even more people out of prison.

Yes, there might be pressure on prisons, but the solution is not to stop locking people up. The solution is to build more prisons to meet the necessary capacity.

I hope the Government has now got this point as it should not matter when you commit a crime – with a lottery of whether there are more or less prison spaces – if the punishment is a much-deserved prison sentence then that should be what the courts are handing down.

Dealing with criminals is important not just to me but to most people. The Government needs to be tougher on prisoners, much more aware of the interests of victims and doing more to prevent potential future victims.

This Bill currently before Parliament is a good opportunity to do just that.