UK courts could begin sitting through the night a minister has suggested, as thousands of specialist police officers stand ready to deal with the rioting which continues across the United Kingdom.
Disorder has now lasted for a week, with unrest witnessed across England and in parts of Northern Ireland. Police were injured during “sustained violence” in Plymouth on Monday, while similar trouble on the streets of Darlington, in north-east England, saw officers pelted with bricks.
Six people have, meanwhile, been charged in connection with riots outside a hotel in Rotherham , near Sheffield, on Sunday, which was being used to house asylum seekers.
Justice Minister Heidi Alexander said the government will bring more than 500 additional prison places into use to deal with rioting, and some 6,000 specialist police officers were at the ready.
“We will make sure that anyone who is given a custodial sentence as a result of the riots and disorder, there will be a prison place waiting for them,” she warned on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The minister said some 567 additional prison spaces would soon come into use.
Extra cells at a prison in Stocken, Rutland will be in use from “next week”, she said, with plans also in place to use space at Cookham Wood Young Offender Institution in Kent for adult prisoners. Rutland is in the East Midlands, while Kent is in south-east England.
She also revealed more detail about the planned “standing army” of police officers Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday afternoon.
Alexander told Times Radio: “These are police officers who have had specialist training in dealing with public order offences.
“We had 4,000 available at the weekend. There will be another 2,000 available this week.” Elsewhere, she said courts “could possibly” begin sitting “through the evening, the night, at weekends” in order to swiftly prosecute rioters. (DPA)
