David Lammy asks Amber Rudd to carry out review of prisons

David Lammy asks Amber Rudd to carry out review of prisons as Labour seeks answers to England and Wales prison overcrowding while aiming to modernise the system. Deputy prime minister and justice secretary David Lammy will unveil Amber Rudd, a former Tory cabinet minister and ex-home secretary under Theresa May, to lead the review. The scope includes keeping the public safe and updating prisons to address new threats such as increasingly sophisticated drone deliveries. Rudd will also examine ways to cut crime through training and improving how ex-offenders connect with modern employment. The review will consider the prison estate, including whether older Victorian city-centre prisons should be replaced with new facilities designed for training, security, and safer conditions for the public and guards. The article says the move is the second recent instance of Labour appointing a former Conservative to build cross-party consensus, after David Gauke’s sentencing review. It notes Rudd, 62, accepted the role as a late act of the Keir Starmer government, with attention also on political implications and Labour leadership succession.